Interfaces - II
Welcome to tutorial no. 19 in Golang tutorial series. This is the second part in our 2 part interface tutorial. In case you missed the first part, you can read it from here /interfaces-part-1/
Implementing interfaces using pointer receivers vs value receivers
All the example interfaces we discussed in part 1 were implemented using value receivers. It is also possible to implement interfaces using pointer receivers. There is a subtlety to be noted while implementing interfaces using pointer receivers. Lets understand that using the following program.
1package main
2
3import "fmt"
4
5type Describer interface {
6 Describe()
7}
8type Person struct {
9 name string
10 age int
11}
12
13func (p Person) Describe() { //implemented using value receiver
14 fmt.Printf("%s is %d years old\n", p.name, p.age)
15}
16
17type Address struct {
18 state string
19 country string
20}
21
22func (a *Address) Describe() { //implemented using pointer receiver
23 fmt.Printf("State %s Country %s", a.state, a.country)
24}
25
26func main() {
27 var d1 Describer
28 p1 := Person{"Sam", 25}
29 d1 = p1
30 d1.Describe()
31 p2 := Person{"James", 32}
32 d1 = &p2
33 d1.Describe()
34
35 var d2 Describer
36 a := Address{"Washington", "USA"}
37
38 /* compilation error if the following line is
39 uncommented
40 cannot use a (type Address) as type Describer
41 in assignment: Address does not implement
42 Describer (Describe method has pointer
43 receiver)
44 */
45 //d2 = a
46
47 d2 = &a //This works since Describer interface
48 //is implemented by Address pointer in line 22
49 d2.Describe()
50
51}
In the program above, the Person struct implements the Describer interface using value receiver in line no. 13.
As we have already learnt during our discussion about methods, methods with value receivers accept both pointer and value receivers. It is legal to call a value method on anything which is a value or whose value can be dereferenced.
p1 is a value of type Person and it is assigned to d1 in line no. 29. Person implements the Describer interface and hence line no. 30 will print Sam is 25 years old.
Similarly d1 is assigned to &p2 in line no. 32 and hence line no. 33 will print James is 32 years old. Awesome :).
The Address struct implements the Describer interface using pointer receiver in line no. 22.
If line. no 45 of the program above is uncommented, we will get the compilation error main.go:42: cannot use a (type Address) as type Describer in assignment: Address does not implement Describer (Describe method has pointer receiver). This is because, the Describer interface is implemented using a Address Pointer receiver in line 22 and we are trying to assign a which is a value type and it has not implemented the Describer interface. This will definitely surprise you since we learnt earlier that methods with pointer receivers will accept both pointer and value receivers. Then why isn’t the code in line no. 45 working.
The reason is that it is legal to call a pointer-valued method on anything that is already a pointer or whose address can be taken. The concrete value stored in an interface is not addressable and hence it is not possible for the compiler to automatically take the address of a in line no. 45 and hence this code fails.
Line no. 47 works because we are assigning the address of a &a to d2.
The rest of the program is self explanatory. This program will print,
Sam is 25 years old
James is 32 years old
State Washington Country USA
Implementing multiple interfaces
A type can implement more than one interface. Lets see how this is done in the following program.
1package main
2
3import (
4 "fmt"
5)
6
7type SalaryCalculator interface {
8 DisplaySalary()
9}
10
11type LeaveCalculator interface {
12 CalculateLeavesLeft() int
13}
14
15type Employee struct {
16 firstName string
17 lastName string
18 basicPay int
19 pf int
20 totalLeaves int
21 leavesTaken int
22}
23
24func (e Employee) DisplaySalary() {
25 fmt.Printf("%s %s has salary $%d", e.firstName, e.lastName, (e.basicPay + e.pf))
26}
27
28func (e Employee) CalculateLeavesLeft() int {
29 return e.totalLeaves - e.leavesTaken
30}
31
32func main() {
33 e := Employee {
34 firstName: "Naveen",
35 lastName: "Ramanathan",
36 basicPay: 5000,
37 pf: 200,
38 totalLeaves: 30,
39 leavesTaken: 5,
40 }
41 var s SalaryCalculator = e
42 s.DisplaySalary()
43 var l LeaveCalculator = e
44 fmt.Println("\nLeaves left =", l.CalculateLeavesLeft())
45}
The program above has two interfaces SalaryCalculator and LeaveCalculator declared in lines 7 and 11 respectively.
The Employee struct defined in line no. 15 provides implementations for the DisplaySalary method of SalaryCalculator interface in line no. 24 and the CalculateLeavesLeft method of LeaveCalculator interface interface in line no. 28. Now Employee implements both SalaryCalculator and LeaveCalculator interfaces.
In line no. 41 we assign e to a variable of type SalaryCalculator interface and in line no. 43 we assign the same variable e to a variable of type LeaveCalculator. This is possible since e which of type Employee implements both SalaryCalculator and LeaveCalculator interfaces.
This program outputs,
Naveen Ramanathan has salary $5200
Leaves left = 25
Embedding interfaces
Although go does not offer inheritance, it is possible to create a new interfaces by embedding other interfaces.
Lets see how this is done.
1package main
2
3import (
4 "fmt"
5)
6
7type SalaryCalculator interface {
8 DisplaySalary()
9}
10
11type LeaveCalculator interface {
12 CalculateLeavesLeft() int
13}
14
15type EmployeeOperations interface {
16 SalaryCalculator
17 LeaveCalculator
18}
19
20type Employee struct {
21 firstName string
22 lastName string
23 basicPay int
24 pf int
25 totalLeaves int
26 leavesTaken int
27}
28
29func (e Employee) DisplaySalary() {
30 fmt.Printf("%s %s has salary $%d", e.firstName, e.lastName, (e.basicPay + e.pf))
31}
32
33func (e Employee) CalculateLeavesLeft() int {
34 return e.totalLeaves - e.leavesTaken
35}
36
37func main() {
38 e := Employee {
39 firstName: "Naveen",
40 lastName: "Ramanathan",
41 basicPay: 5000,
42 pf: 200,
43 totalLeaves: 30,
44 leavesTaken: 5,
45 }
46 var empOp EmployeeOperations = e
47 empOp.DisplaySalary()
48 fmt.Println("\nLeaves left =", empOp.CalculateLeavesLeft())
49}
EmployeeOperations interface in line 15 of the program above is created by embedding SalaryCalculator and LeaveCalculator interfaces.
Any type is said to implement EmployeeOperations interface if it provides method definitions for the methods present in both SalaryCalculator and LeaveCalculator interfaces.
The Employee struct implements EmployeeOperations interface since it provides definition for both DisplaySalary and CalculateLeavesLeft methods in lines 29 and 33 respectively.
In line 46, e of type Employee is assigned to empOp of type EmployeeOperations. In the next two lines, the DisplaySalary() and CalculateLeavesLeft() methods are called on empOp.
This program will output
Naveen Ramanathan has salary $5200
Leaves left = 25
Zero value of Interface
The zero value of a interface is nil. A nil interface has both its underlying value and as well as concrete type as nil.
1package main
2
3import "fmt"
4
5type Describer interface {
6 Describe()
7}
8
9func main() {
10 var d1 Describer
11 if d1 == nil {
12 fmt.Printf("d1 is nil and has type %T value %v\n", d1, d1)
13 }
14}
d1 in the above program is nil and this program will output
d1 is nil and has type <nil> value <nil>
If we try to call a method on the nil interface, the program will panic since the nil interface neither has a underlying value nor a concrete type.
1package main
2
3type Describer interface {
4 Describe()
5}
6
7func main() {
8 var d1 Describer
9 d1.Describe()
10}
Since d1 in the program above is nil, this program will panic with runtime error panic: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference
[signal SIGSEGV: segmentation violation code=0xffffffff addr=0x0 pc=0xc8527]"
Thats it for interfaces. I hope you liked this tutorial. Please leave your feedback and comments. Please consider sharing this tutorial on twitter and LinkedIn. Have a good day.
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