Reflect on list of interfaces - go

Question

I have read several examples/questions about reflection in Go, but I'm still unable to understand what I'm supposed to do with my list of interfaces.
Below is a stripped down version of the real use case.
I have several types complying with a given interface:
type Foo interface {
Value() int
}
type bar struct {
value int
}
func (b bar) Value() int {
return b.value
}
type baz struct{}
func (b baz) Value() int {
return 42
}
I have a list of such guys
type Foos []Foo
var foos = Foos{
bar{},
baz{},
}
and I would like to traverse this list by changing the value of the members that have a value field.
for k := range foos {
change(&foos[k])
}
But I'm unable to find the right path
func change(g *Foo) {
t := reflect.TypeOf(g).Elem()
fmt.Printf("t: Kind %v, %#v\n", t.Kind(), t)
v := reflect.ValueOf(g).Elem()
fmt.Printf("v: Kind %v, %#v, %v\n", v.Kind(), v, v.CanAddr())
if f, ok := t.FieldByName("value"); ok {
fmt.Printf("f: %#v, OK: %v\n", f, ok)
vf := v.FieldByName("value")
fmt.Printf("vf: %#v: %v\n", vf, vf.CanAddr())
vf.SetInt(51)
}
}
As you can see, I'm not sure how to glue together the TypeOf and ValueOf bits...
The full example is on Go Playground.

Answer 1

There are a couple of issues here. First, it's not possible to set an unexported field. Here's a change to make the field exported:
type Foo interface {
// Rename Value to GetValue to avoid clash with Value field in bar
GetValue() int
}
type bar struct {
// export the field by capitalizing the name
Value int
}
func (b bar) GetValue() int {
return b.Value
}
type baz struct{}
func (b baz) GetValue() int {
return 42
}
The next issue is a bar interface value is not addressable. To fix this, use a *bar in the slice instead instead of a bar:
func (b *bar) GetValue() int {
return b.Value
}
...
var foos = Foos{
&bar{},
baz{},
}
With these changes, we can write the function to set the value:
func change(g Foo) {
v := reflect.ValueOf(g)
// Return if not a pointer to a struct.
if v.Kind() != reflect.Ptr {
return
}
v = v.Elem()
if v.Kind() != reflect.Struct {
return
}
// Set the field Value if found.
v = v.FieldByName("Value")
if !v.IsValid() {
return
}
v.SetInt(31)
}
Run it on the playground
The above answers the question, but it may not be the best solution to the actual problem. A better solution may be to define a setter interface:
type ValueSetter interface {
SetValue(i int)
}
func (b *bar) Value() int {
return b.value
}
func (b *bar) SetValue(i int) {
b.value = i
}
func change(g Foo) {
if vs, ok := g.(ValueSetter); ok {
vs.SetValue(31)
}
}
Run it on the playground

Answer 2

Please don't use your current approach. It has several drawbacks.
It's confusing (as you've discovered)
It's slow. Reflection is always slow.
It's inflexible. Your loop, not the type itself, must understand the capabilities of each type implementation.
Instead, just expand your interface to include a setter method--possibly an optional setter method. Then you can loop through the items and set the value for those that support it. Example:
// FooSetter is an optional interface which allows a Foo to set its value.
type FooSetter interface {
SetValue(int)
}
// SetValue implements the optional FooSetter interface for type bar.
func (b *bar) SetValue(v int) {
b.value = v
}
Then make your loop look like this:
for _, v := range foos {
if setter, ok := v.(FooSetter); ok {
setter.SetValue(51)
}
}
Now when you (or a third party user of your library) adds a type Baz that satisfies the FooSetter interface, you don't have to modify your loop at all.