trivigy / ref

Implements functions for de-referencing primitive types

Ref

Introduction

In golang v1, unfortunately, there is no nice builtin way to represent optional struct fields for primitives whose zero value is individualized for each primitive. A lot of debating has been done and people hold different opinions as to what is the best solution. This library is my personal preferred way of dealing with the situation.

Example

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	
	"github.com/trivigy/ref"
)

type Sample struct {
	Field *string `json:"field,omitempty"`
}

func main() {
	result := Sample{
		Field: ref.String("example"),
	}
	
	if result.Field != nil {
		fmt.Print("'Field' is set")
	}
}

Alternatives

• https://www.reddit.com/r/golang/comments/1tst88/optional_field_in_a_struct_pointer_vs_nullintlike/

If you hold another opinion feel free to share it either via discord or on golang github channels. Or better yet share a PR with a new link added above.