Structs
Welcome to tutorial no. 16 in our Golang tutorial series.
What is a struct?
A struct is a user-defined type that represents a collection of fields. It can be used in places where it makes sense to group the data into a single unit rather than having each of them as separate values.
For instance, an employee has a firstName, lastName and age. It makes sense to group these three properties into a single struct named Employee.
Declaring a struct
1type Employee struct {
2 firstName string
3 lastName string
4 age int
5}
The above snippet declares a struct type Employee with fields firstName, lastName and age. The above Employee struct is called a named struct because it creates a new data type named Employee using which Employee structs can be created.
This struct can also be made more compact by declaring fields that belong to the same type in a single line followed by the type name. In the above struct firstName and lastName belong to the same type string and hence the struct can be rewritten as
1type Employee struct {
2 firstName, lastName string
3 age int
4}
Although the above syntax saves a few lines of code, it doesn’t make the field declarations explicit. Please refrain from using the above syntax.
Creating named structs
Let’s declare a named struct Employee using the following simple program.
1package main
2
3import (
4 "fmt"
5)
6
7type Employee struct {
8 firstName string
9 lastName string
10 age int
11 salary int
12}
13
14func main() {
15
16 //creating struct specifying field names
17 emp1 := Employee{
18 firstName: "Sam",
19 age: 25,
20 salary: 500,
21 lastName: "Anderson",
22 }
23
24 //creating struct without specifying field names
25 emp2 := Employee{"Thomas", "Paul", 29, 800}
26
27 fmt.Println("Employee 1", emp1)
28 fmt.Println("Employee 2", emp2)
29}
In line no.7 of the above program, we create a named struct type Employee. In line no.17 of the above program, the emp1 struct is defined by specifying the value for each field name. The order of the fields need not necessarily be the same as that of the order of the field names while declaring the struct type. In this case. we have changed the position of lastName and moved it to the end. This will work without any problems.
In line 25. of the above program, emp2 is defined by omitting the field names. In this case, it is necessary to maintain the order of fields to be the same as specified in the struct declaration. Please refrain from using this syntax since it makes it difficult to figure out which value is for which field. We specified this format here just to understand that this is also a valid syntax :)
The above program prints
Employee 1 {Sam Anderson 25 500}
Employee 2 {Thomas Paul 29 800}
Creating anonymous structs
It is possible to declare structs without creating a new data type. These types of structs are called anonymous structs.
1package main
2
3import (
4 "fmt"
5)
6
7func main() {
8 emp3 := struct {
9 firstName string
10 lastName string
11 age int
12 salary int
13 }{
14 firstName: "Andreah",
15 lastName: "Nikola",
16 age: 31,
17 salary: 5000,
18 }
19
20 fmt.Println("Employee 3", emp3)
21}
In line no 8. of the above program, an anonymous struct variable emp3 is defined. As we have already mentioned, this struct is called anonymous because it only creates a new struct variable emp3 and does not define any new struct type like named structs.
This program outputs,
Employee 3 {Andreah Nikola 31 5000}
Accessing individual fields of a struct
The dot . operator is used to access the individual fields of a struct.
1package main
2
3import (
4 "fmt"
5)
6
7type Employee struct {
8 firstName string
9 lastName string
10 age int
11 salary int
12}
13
14func main() {
15 emp6 := Employee{
16 firstName: "Sam",
17 lastName: "Anderson",
18 age: 55,
19 salary: 6000,
20 }
21 fmt.Println("First Name:", emp6.firstName)
22 fmt.Println("Last Name:", emp6.lastName)
23 fmt.Println("Age:", emp6.age)
24 fmt.Printf("Salary: $%d\n", emp6.salary)
25 emp6.salary = 6500
26 fmt.Printf("New Salary: $%d", emp6.salary)
27}
emp6.firstName in the above program accesses the firstName field of the emp6 struct. In line no. 25 we modify the salary of the employee. This program prints,
First Name: Sam
Last Name: Anderson
Age: 55
Salary: $6000
New Salary: $6500
Zero value of a struct
When a struct is defined and it is not explicitly initialized with any value, the fields of the struct are assigned their zero values by default.
1package main
2
3import (
4 "fmt"
5)
6
7type Employee struct {
8 firstName string
9 lastName string
10 age int
11 salary int
12}
13
14func main() {
15 var emp4 Employee //zero valued struct
16 fmt.Println("First Name:", emp4.firstName)
17 fmt.Println("Last Name:", emp4.lastName)
18 fmt.Println("Age:", emp4.age)
19 fmt.Println("Salary:", emp4.salary)
20}
The above program defines emp4 but it is not initialized with any value. Hence firstName and lastName are assigned the zero values of string which is an empty string "" and age, salary are assigned the zero values of int which is 0. This program prints,
First Name:
Last Name:
Age: 0
Salary: 0
It is also possible to specify values for some fields and ignore the rest. In this case, the ignored fields are assigned zero values.
1package main
2
3import (
4 "fmt"
5)
6
7type Employee struct {
8 firstName string
9 lastName string
10 age int
11 salary int
12}
13
14func main() {
15 emp5 := Employee{
16 firstName: "John",
17 lastName: "Paul",
18 }
19 fmt.Println("First Name:", emp5.firstName)
20 fmt.Println("Last Name:", emp5.lastName)
21 fmt.Println("Age:", emp5.age)
22 fmt.Println("Salary:", emp5.salary)
23}
In the above program in line. no 16 and 17, firstName and lastName are initialized whereas age and salary are not. Hence age and salary are assigned their zero values. This program outputs,
First Name: John
Last Name: Paul
Age: 0
Salary: 0
Pointers to a struct
It is also possible to create pointers to a struct.
1package main
2
3import (
4 "fmt"
5)
6
7type Employee struct {
8 firstName string
9 lastName string
10 age int
11 salary int
12}
13
14func main() {
15 emp8 := &Employee{
16 firstName: "Sam",
17 lastName: "Anderson",
18 age: 55,
19 salary: 6000,
20 }
21 fmt.Println("First Name:", (*emp8).firstName)
22 fmt.Println("Age:", (*emp8).age)
23}
emp8 in the above program is a pointer to the Employee struct. (*emp8).firstName is the syntax to access the firstName field of the emp8 struct. This program prints,
First Name: Sam
Age: 55
The Go language gives us the option to use emp8.firstName instead of the explicit dereference (*emp8).firstName to access the firstName field.
1package main
2
3import (
4 "fmt"
5)
6
7type Employee struct {
8 firstName string
9 lastName string
10 age int
11 salary int
12}
13
14func main() {
15 emp8 := &Employee{
16 firstName: "Sam",
17 lastName: "Anderson",
18 age: 55,
19 salary: 6000,
20 }
21 fmt.Println("First Name:", emp8.firstName)
22 fmt.Println("Age:", emp8.age)
23}
We have used emp8.firstName to access the firstName field in the above program and this program also outputs,
First Name: Sam
Age: 55
Anonymous fields
It is possible to create structs with fields that contain only a type without the field name. These kinds of fields are called anonymous fields.
The snippet below creates a struct Person which has two anonymous fields string and int
1type Person struct {
2 string
3 int
4}
Even though anonymous fields do not have an explicit name, by default the name of an anonymous field is the name of its type. For example in the case of the Person struct above, although the fields are anonymous, by default they take the name of the type of the fields. So Person struct has 2 fields with name string and int.
1package main
2
3import (
4 "fmt"
5)
6
7type Person struct {
8 string
9 int
10}
11
12func main() {
13 p1 := Person{
14 string: "naveen",
15 int: 50,
16 }
17 fmt.Println(p1.string)
18 fmt.Println(p1.int)
19}
In line no. 17 and 18 of the above program, we access the anonymous fields of the Person struct using their types as field name which is string and int respectively. The output of the above program is,
naveen
50
Nested structs
It is possible that a struct contains a field which in turn is a struct. These kinds of structs are called nested structs.
1package main
2
3import (
4 "fmt"
5)
6
7type Address struct {
8 city string
9 state string
10}
11
12type Person struct {
13 name string
14 age int
15 address Address
16}
17
18func main() {
19 p := Person{
20 name: "Naveen",
21 age: 50,
22 address: Address{
23 city: "Chicago",
24 state: "Illinois",
25 },
26 }
27
28 fmt.Println("Name:", p.name)
29 fmt.Println("Age:", p.age)
30 fmt.Println("City:", p.address.city)
31 fmt.Println("State:", p.address.state)
32}
The Person struct in the above program has a field address which in turn is a struct. This program prints
Name: Naveen
Age: 50
City: Chicago
State: Illinois
Promoted fields
Fields that belong to an anonymous struct field in a struct are called promoted fields since they can be accessed as if they belong to the struct which holds the anonymous struct field. I can understand that this definition is quite complex so let’s dive right into some code to understand this :).
1type Address struct {
2 city string
3 state string
4}
5type Person struct {
6 name string
7 age int
8 Address
9}
In the above code snippet, the Person struct has an anonymous field Address which is a struct. Now the fields of the Address namely city and state are called promoted fields since they can be accessed as if they are directly declared in the Person struct itself.
1package main
2
3import (
4 "fmt"
5)
6
7type Address struct {
8 city string
9 state string
10}
11type Person struct {
12 name string
13 age int
14 Address
15}
16
17func main() {
18 p := Person{
19 name: "Naveen",
20 age: 50,
21 Address: Address{
22 city: "Chicago",
23 state: "Illinois",
24 },
25 }
26
27 fmt.Println("Name:", p.name)
28 fmt.Println("Age:", p.age)
29 fmt.Println("City:", p.city) //city is promoted field
30 fmt.Println("State:", p.state) //state is promoted field
31}
In line no. 29 and 30 of the program above, the promoted fields city and state are accessed as if they are declared in the struct p itself using the syntax p.city and p.state. This program prints,
Name: Naveen
Age: 50
City: Chicago
State: Illinois
Exported structs and fields
If a struct type starts with a capital letter, then it is an exported type and it can be accessed from other packages. Similarly, if the fields of a struct start with caps, they can be accessed from other packages.
Let’s write a program that has custom packages to understand this better.
Create a folder named structs in your Documents directory. Please feel free to create it anywhere you like. I prefer my Documents directory.
mkdir ~/Documents/structs
Let’s create a go module named structs.
cd ~/Documents/structs/
go mod init structs
Create another directory computer inside structs.
mkdir computer
Inside the computer directory, create a file spec.go with the following contents.
1package computer
2
3type Spec struct { //exported struct
4 Maker string //exported field
5 Price int //exported field
6 model string //unexported field
7
8}
The above snippet creates a package computer which contains an exported struct type Spec with two exported fields Maker and Price and one unexported field model. Let’s import this package from the main package and use the Spec struct.
Create a file named main.go inside the structs directory and write the following program in main.go
1package main
2
3import (
4 "structs/computer"
5 "fmt"
6)
7
8func main() {
9 spec := computer.Spec {
10 Maker: "apple",
11 Price: 50000,
12 }
13 fmt.Println("Maker:", spec.Maker)
14 fmt.Println("Price:", spec.Price)
15}
The structs folder should have the following structure,
├── structs
│ ├── computer
│ │ └── spec.go
│ ├── go.mod
│ └── main.go
In line no. 4 of the program above, we import the computer package. In line no. 13 and 14, we access the two exported fields Maker and Price of the struct Spec. This program can be run by executing the commands go install followed by structs command. If you are not sure about how to run a Go program, please visit /hello-world-gomod/#1goinstall to know more.
go install
structs
Running the above commands will print,
Maker: apple
Price: 50000
If we try to access the unexported field model, the compiler will complain. Replace the contents of main.go with the following code.
1package main
2
3import (
4 "structs/computer"
5 "fmt"
6)
7
8func main() {
9 spec := computer.Spec {
10 Maker: "apple",
11 Price: 50000,
12 model: "Mac Mini",
13 }
14 fmt.Println("Maker:", spec.Maker)
15 fmt.Println("Price:", spec.Price)
16}
In line no. 12 of the above program, we try to access the unexported field model. Running this program will result in compilation error.
# structs
./main.go:12:13: unknown field 'model' in struct literal of type computer.Spec
Since model field is unexported, it cannot be accessed from other packages.
Structs Equality
Structs are value types and are comparable if each of their fields are comparable. Two struct variables are considered equal if their corresponding fields are equal.
1package main
2
3import (
4 "fmt"
5)
6
7type name struct {
8 firstName string
9 lastName string
10}
11
12func main() {
13 name1 := name{
14 firstName: "Steve",
15 lastName: "Jobs",
16 }
17 name2 := name{
18 firstName: "Steve",
19 lastName: "Jobs",
20 }
21 if name1 == name2 {
22 fmt.Println("name1 and name2 are equal")
23 } else {
24 fmt.Println("name1 and name2 are not equal")
25 }
26
27 name3 := name{
28 firstName: "Steve",
29 lastName: "Jobs",
30 }
31 name4 := name{
32 firstName: "Steve",
33 }
34
35 if name3 == name4 {
36 fmt.Println("name3 and name4 are equal")
37 } else {
38 fmt.Println("name3 and name4 are not equal")
39 }
40}
In the above program, name struct type contain two string fields. Since strings are comparable, it is possible to compare two struct variables of type name.
In the above program name1 and name2 are equal whereas name3 and name4 are not. This program will output,
name1 and name2 are equal
name3 and name4 are not equal
Struct variables are not comparable if they contain fields that are not comparable (Thanks to alasijia from reddit for pointing this out).
1package main
2
3import (
4 "fmt"
5)
6
7type image struct {
8 data map[int]int
9}
10
11func main() {
12 image1 := image{
13 data: map[int]int{
14 0: 155,
15 }}
16 image2 := image{
17 data: map[int]int{
18 0: 155,
19 }}
20 if image1 == image2 {
21 fmt.Println("image1 and image2 are equal")
22 }
23}
In the program above image struct type contains a field data which is of type map. maps are not comparable, hence image1 and image2 cannot be compared. If you run this program, the compilation will fail with error
./prog.go:20:12: invalid operation: image1 == image2 (struct containing map[int]int cannot be compared)
Thanks for reading. Please leave your comments and feedback. Please consider sharing this tutorial tutorial on twitter or LinkedIn. Have a good day.
Next tutorial - Methods
