JSON with optional fields in Go

The translation of the article has been prepared especially for future students of the "Golang Developer. Professional" course .

One of the most common types of data stored in configuration files is options . In this article, I'll cover some of the nuances to consider when storing options in JSON and unmarshaling them in Go.

In particular, the most important difference between options and any other data is that options are often, pardon the pun ... optional . Our program can have a large number of various configuration parameters (options), but we may need to initiate any specific invocation with only a limited subset of them, leaving the default values ​​for everything else.

Basics - Partial Anmarshaling, Omitempty, and Unknown Fields

. , :

type Options struct {
  Id      string `json:"id,omitempty"`
  Verbose bool   `json:"verbose,omitempty"`
  Level   int    `json:"level,omitempty"`
  Power   int    `json:"power,omitempty"`
}

4 , .

, JSON- . :

{
  "id": "foobar",
  "verbose": false,
  "level": 10,
  "power": 221
}

, . json.Unmarshal, .

. :

1. JSON- , , Go .

2. JSON- , . , .

(1) json Go , JSON; Go. , JSON level, Options Level 0. , .

(2) json . , JSON:

{
  "id": "foobar",
  "bug": 42
}

json.Unmarshal Options, Id "foobar", Level Power 0, Verbose false. bug.

, - . , json , JSON- DisallowUnknownFields:

dec := json.NewDecoder(bytes.NewReader(jsonText))
dec.DisallowUnknownFields()

var opts Options
if err := dec.Decode(&opts2); err != nil {
  fmt.Println("Decode error:", err)
}

JSON .

, , Options omitempty, . , JSON. :

opts := Options{
  Id:    "baz",
  Level: 0,
}
out, _ := json.MarshalIndent(opts, "", "  ")
fmt.Println(string(out))

:

{
  "id": "baz"
}

. , omitempty.

, JSON- Go. , , . , Power 10, 0? , JSON «power», Power 10, Unmarshal .

- ! Power 10 , JSON 0! . , JSON 0?

, . , json.Unmarshal :

func parseOptions(jsn []byte) Options {
  opts := Options{
    Verbose: false,
    Level:   0,
    Power:   10,
  }
  if err := json.Unmarshal(jsn, &opts); err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
  }
  return opts
}

json.Unmarshal Options, parseOptions.

UnmarshalJSON Options:

func (o *Options) UnmarshalJSON(text []byte) error {
  type options Options
  opts := options{
    Power: 10,
  }
  if err := json.Unmarshal(text, &opts); err != nil {
    return err
  }
  *o = Options(opts)
  return nil
}

json.Unmarshal Options Power . options - UnmarshalJSON.

, . -, . , , ; .

, . Options , . :

type Region struct {
  Name  string `json:"name,omitempty"`
  Power int    `json:"power,omitempty"`
}

type Options struct {
  Id      string `json:"id,omitempty"`
  Verbose bool   `json:"verbose,omitempty"`
  Level   int    `json:"level,omitempty"`
  Power   int    `json:"power,omitempty"`

  Regions []Region `json:"regions,omitempty"`
}

Power Region, Options. Region. - UnmarshalJSON .

, . -.

-

Options :

type Options struct {
  Id      *string `json:"id,omitempty"`
  Verbose *bool   `json:"verbose,omitempty"`
  Level   *int    `json:"level,omitempty"`
  Power   *int    `json:"power,omitempty"`
}

, , . , JSON:

{
  "id": "foobar",
  "verbose": false,
  "level": 10
}

, , "power". :

var opts Options
if err := json.Unmarshal(jsonText, &opts); err != nil {
  log.Fatal(err)
}

, ( nil ), , ( ). , Options :\

func parseOptions(jsn []byte) Options {
  var opts Options
  if err := json.Unmarshal(jsonText, &opts); err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
  }

  if opts.Power == nil {
    var v int = 10
    opts.Power = &v
  }

  return opts
}

, opts.Power; , Go , , int. , , :

func Bool(v bool) *bool       { return &v }
func Int(v int) *int          { return &v }
func String(v string) *string { return &v }
//  .. ...

, opts.Power = Int(10).

, , JSON. Options , , nil.

- « »? . , , , . Protobuf protobuf- proto2, . !

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