Timestamps in Golang - go

Question

Trying to get this approach to timestamps working in my application: https://gist.github.com/bsphere/8369aca6dde3e7b4392c#file-timestamp-go
Here it is:
package timestamp
import (
"fmt"
"labix.org/v2/mgo/bson"
"strconv"
"time"
)
type Timestamp time.Time
func (t *Timestamp) MarshalJSON() ([]byte, error) {
ts := time.Time(*t).Unix()
stamp := fmt.Sprint(ts)
return []byte(stamp), nil
}
func (t *Timestamp) UnmarshalJSON(b []byte) error {
ts, err := strconv.Atoi(string(b))
if err != nil {
return err
}
*t = Timestamp(time.Unix(int64(ts), 0))
return nil
}
func (t Timestamp) GetBSON() (interface{}, error) {
if time.Time(*t).IsZero() {
return nil, nil
}
return time.Time(*t), nil
}
func (t *Timestamp) SetBSON(raw bson.Raw) error {
var tm time.Time
if err := raw.Unmarshal(&tm); err != nil {
return err
}
*t = Timestamp(tm)
return nil
}
func (t *Timestamp) String() string {
return time.Time(*t).String()
}
and the article that goes with it: https://medium.com/coding-and-deploying-in-the-cloud/time-stamps-in-golang-abcaf581b72f
However, I'm getting the following error:
core/timestamp/timestamp.go:31: invalid indirect of t (type Timestamp)
core/timestamp/timestamp.go:35: invalid indirect of t (type Timestamp)
My relevant code looks like this:
import (
"github.com/path/to/timestamp"
)
type User struct {
Name string
Created_at *timestamp.Timestamp `bson:"created_at,omitempty" json:"created_at,omitempty"`
}
Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong?
Related question
I can't see how to implement this package either. Do I create a new User model something like this?
u := User{Name: "Joe Bloggs", Created_at: timestamp.Timestamp(time.Now())}

Answer 1

Your code has a typo. You can't dereference a non-pointer, so you need to make GetBSON a pointer receiver (or you could remove the indirects to t, since the value of t isn't changed by the method).
func (t *Timestamp) GetBSON() (interface{}, error) {
To set a *Timestamp value inline, you need to have a *time.Time to convert.
now := time.Now()
u := User{
Name: "Bob",
CreatedAt: (*Timestamp)(&now),
}
Constructor and a helper functions like New() and Now() may come in handy for this as well.

Answer 2

You cannot refer to an indirection of something that is not a pointer variable.
var a int = 3 // a = 3
var A *int = &a // A = 0x10436184
fmt.Println(*A == a) // true, both equals 3
fmt.Println(*&a == a) // true, both equals 3
fmt.Println(*a) // invalid indirect of a (type int)
Thus, you can not reference the address of a with *a.
Looking at where the error happens:
func (t Timestamp) GetBSON() (interface{}, error) {
// t is a variable type Timestamp, not type *Timestamp (pointer)
// so this is not possible at all, unless t is a pointer variable
// and you're trying to dereference it to get the Timestamp value
if time.Time(*t).IsZero() {
return nil, nil
}
// so is this
return time.Time(*t), nil
}