Is there a way to write generic code to find out whether a slice contains specific element in Go? - go

Question

I want to know is there a generic way to write code to judge whether a slice contains an element, I find it will frequently useful since there is a lot of logic to fist judge whether specific elem is already in a slice and then decide what to do next. But there seemed not a built-in method for that(For God's sake, why?)
I try to use interface{} to do that like:
func sliceContains(slice []interface{}, elem interface{}) bool {
for _, item := range slice {
if item == elem {
return true
}
}
return false
}
I thought interface{} is sort of like Object of Java, but apparently, I was wrong. Should I write this every time meet with a new struct of slice? Isn't there a generic way to do this?

Answer 1

You can do it with reflect, but it will be MUCH SLOWER than a non-generic equivalent function:
func Contains(slice, elem interface{}) bool {
sv := reflect.ValueOf(slice)
// Check that slice is actually a slice/array.
// you might want to return an error here
if sv.Kind() != reflect.Slice && sv.Kind() != reflect.Array {
return false
}
// iterate the slice
for i := 0; i < sv.Len(); i++ {
// compare elem to the current slice element
if elem == sv.Index(i).Interface() {
return true
}
}
// nothing found
return false
}
func main(){
si := []int {3, 4, 5, 10, 11}
ss := []string {"hello", "world", "foo", "bar"}
fmt.Println(Contains(si, 3))
fmt.Println(Contains(si, 100))
fmt.Println(Contains(ss, "hello"))
fmt.Println(Contains(ss, "baz"))
}
How much slower? about x50-x60 slower:
Benchmarking against a non generic function of the form:
func ContainsNonGeneic(slice []int, elem int) bool {
for _, i := range slice {
if i == elem {
return true
}
}
return false
}
I'm getting:
Generic: N=100000, running time: 73.023214ms 730.23214 ns/op
Non Generic: N=100000, running time: 1.315262ms 13.15262 ns/op

Answer 2

You can make it using the reflect package like that:
func In(s, e interface{}) bool {
slice, elem := reflect.ValueOf(s), reflect.ValueOf(e)
for i := 0; i < slice.Len(); i++ {
if reflect.DeepEqual(slice.Index(i).Interface(), elem.Interface()) {
return true
}
}
return false
}
Playground examples: http://play.golang.org/p/TQrmwIk6B4
Alternatively, you can:
define an interface and make your slices implement it
use maps instead of slices
just write a simple for loop
What way to choose depends on the problem you are solving.

Answer 3

I'm not sure what your specific context is, but you'll probably want to use a map to check if something already exists.
package main
import "fmt"
type PublicClassObjectBuilderFactoryStructure struct {
Tee string
Hee string
}
func main() {
// Empty structs occupy zero bytes.
mymap := map[interface{}]struct{}{}
one := PublicClassObjectBuilderFactoryStructure{Tee: "hi", Hee: "hey"}
two := PublicClassObjectBuilderFactoryStructure{Tee: "hola", Hee: "oye"}
three := PublicClassObjectBuilderFactoryStructure{Tee: "hi", Hee: "again"}
mymap[one] = struct{}{}
mymap[two] = struct{}{}
// The underscore is ignoring the value, which is an empty struct.
if _, exists := mymap[one]; exists {
fmt.Println("one exists")
}
if _, exists := mymap[two]; exists {
fmt.Println("two exists")
}
if _, exists := mymap[three]; exists {
fmt.Println("three exists")
}
}
Another advantage of using maps instead of a slice is that there is a built-in delete function for maps. https://play.golang.org/p/dmSyyryyS8

Answer 4

If you want a rather different solution, you might try the code-generator approach offered by tools such as Gen. Gen writes source code for each concrete class you want to hold in a slice, so it supports type-safe slices that let you search for the first match of an element.
(Gen also offers a few other kinds of collection and allows you to write your own.)