I need to specify a type for decoding JSON data in a flexible manner, meaning the type needs to be specified at runtime.
Consider this snippet: http://play.golang.org/p/F-Jy4ufMPz
s := `{"b":[{"x":9},{"x":4}]}`
var a struct {
B []interface{}
}
err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(s), &a)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
fmt.Println(a)
Which will produce {[map[x:9] map[x:4]]}
. I want to decode to an array of a specific (struct) type instead of []interface{}
, without specifying it at compile time.
Is that somehow possible without creating the array up front? (the number of returned items is unknown)
The only way I can think of right now is to encode the returned maps again later, and decode them to the specified type, which would create unnecessary processing overhead.
If not specifying it at compile time, you still need to specify it somewhere.
If specified before the retrieval of the Json data, you can simply do a switch case, Unmarshalling it to your desired object.
If specified within the Json data, you can marshal the "flexible" part into a json.RawMessage
to process it after you've decided what type of struct is suitable:
package main
import (
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
)
var s = `{"type":"structx", "data":{"x":9,"xstring":"This is structX"}}`
type JsonStruct struct {
Type string
Data json.RawMessage
}
type StructX struct {
X float64
Xstring string
}
type StructY struct {
Y bool
}
func main() {
var a *JsonStruct
err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(s), &a)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
switch a.Type {
case "structx":
// We Unmashal the RawMessage part into a StructX
var s *StructX
json.Unmarshal([]byte(a.Data), &s)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
fmt.Println(s)
case "structy":
// Do the same but for structY
}
}