Parsing JSON using struct - go

Question

I'm trying to parse JSON using Go. Can anyone tell me why my code is not working as expected?
package main
import (
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
)
type Message struct {
Name string
Body string
Time int64
}
type Person struct {
M Message
}
func get_content() {
body := []byte(`{"person":{"Name":"Alice","Body":"Hello","Time":1294706395881547000}}`)
var data Person
err := json.Unmarshal(body, &data)
if err != nil {
panic(err.Error())
}
fmt.Printf("%v",data.M.Name)
}
func main() {
get_content()
}
I'm expecting it to print the Name.
Go playground Code

Answer 1

There are two problems in the code.
The first one is what #umar-hayat mentioned above -> you are unmarshalling into the data object and you should be aiming at the data.M field.
The second problem is that your JSON's structure doesn't match your struct's structure. Your Person has a single field called M. If we want to represent this as JSON it would look like this:
{
"M": {
"Name": "Joe",
"Body": "Hi",
"time": 2600
}
}
Instead, you have a field called person in your JSON which cannot be matched to any field in your struct. The fact that it's similar to the name of the struct's type doesn't help in any way, I'm afraid.
So, you can either change your JSON and your target:
body := []byte(`{"Name":"Alice","Body":"Hello","Time":1294706395881547000}`)
var data Person
err := json.Unmarshal(body, &data.M)
Or just your JSON:
body := []byte(`{"M":{"Name":"Alice","Body":"Hello","Time":1294706395881547000}}`)
var data Person
err := json.Unmarshal(body, &data)
But it's essential that the names of the fields in your JSON match the names of the fields in your struct. Or, as mentioned by Konstantinos, you can use tags in order to specify particular names with which your struct's fields will be represented in the JSON.
You might find this helpful: https://gobyexample.com/json

Answer 2

Here is how to Unmarshel JSON to the struct. you can check it on Go Playground here:
package main
import (
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
)
type Message struct {
Name string
Body string
Time int64
}
type Person struct {
M Message
}
func get_content() {
body := []byte(`{"Name":"Alice","Body":"Hello","Time":1294706395881547000}`)
var data Person
err := json.Unmarshal(body, &data.M)
if err != nil {
panic(err.Error())
}
fmt.Printf(data.M.Name)
}
func main() {
get_content()
}
Replace data with data.M in below line.
err := json.Unmarshal(body, &data)

Answer 3

As long as you intent to map Json keys on structs whose fields have different names you should add tags:
type Message struct {
Name string `json:"Name"`
Body string `json:"Body"`
Time int64 `json:"Time"`
}
type Person struct {
M Message `json:"person"`
}
You can find more information here
In addition this answer explains in an nutshell the purpose of tags in go.