If I have a custom type that simply redefines a pre-defined type with a name:
type Answer string
And I try to use it in a function that accepts the pre-defined type:
func acceptMe(str string) {
fmt.Println(str)
}
func main() {
type Answer string
var ans Answer = "hello"
// cannot use ans (type Answer) as type string in function argument
acceptMe(ans)
// invalid type assertion: ans.(string) (non-interface type Answer on left)
acceptMe(ans.(string))
// Does work, but I don't understand why if the previous doesn't:
acceptMe(string(ans))
}
Why does the type assertion fail, but the conversion work?
Type assertion works for interfaces only. Interface can have arbitrary underlying type, so we have type assertion and type switch to the rescue. Type assertion returns bool
as the second return value to indicate if assertion was successful.
Your custom type Answer
can have only one underlying type. You already know the exact type - Answer
and the underlying type - string
. You don't need assertions, since conversion to the underlying type will always be successful.
Just convert your custom type to string
. The conversion will succeed since your custom type has string
as an underlying type. The conversion syntax: string(ans). Go Play