Here is the link to the code and description I was looking at: https://tour.golang.org/methods/11
I change method M of type *T to T, that is changing from a pointer receiver to a value receiver as below.
package main
import (
"fmt"
"math"
)
type I interface {
M()
}
type T struct {
S string
}
func (t T) M() {
fmt.Println(t.S)
}
type F float64
func (f F) M() {
fmt.Println(f)
}
func main() {
var i I
i = &T{"Hello"}
describe(i)
i.M()
i = F(math.Pi)
describe(i)
i.M()
}
func describe(i I) {
fmt.Printf("(%v, %T)
", i, i)
}
However, the change above gave me the same result as it was still a pointer receiver.
(&{Hello}, *main.T)
Hello
(3.141592653589793, main.F)
3.141592653589793
I am not sure I got this concept right. From my understanding since interface variable i got assign a pointer to an instance of struct T, the type of that interface variable should be a pointer to struct T, and since pointer to struct T does not implement method M, it will cause a panic.
Go has some shortcuts. For example:
a.Method()
a.Field
is the same as
(*a).Method()
(*a).Field
is similar to the concept here https://tour.golang.org/moretypes/4
The method set of the corresponding pointer type
*T
is the set of all methods declared with receiver*T
orT
(that is, it also contains the method set ofT
).[...] The method set of a type determines the interfaces that the type implements and the methods that can be called using a receiver of that type.
So all methods you declare with value receiver will also belong to the method set of the corresponding pointer type, and thus all interfaces a non-pointer type implements will also be implemented by the pointer type too (and possibly more).