Go Type Assertions

External

• https://go.dev/ref/spec#Type_assertions

Internal

• Go Language
• Go Interfaces

Overview

An interface hides the differences between the types implementing it and emphasizes the commonality.

However, there are times you may want to know what exact concrete type exists behind the interface.

Type assertions can be used for type disambiguation:

var i SomeInterface

v, isTypeName := i.(TypeName)

Actually, it worked with:

v, isTypeName := i.(*TypeName)

Why is that? Probably because the interface variable contained a pointer to the actual type.

Usage example:

type SomeInterface interface {
  MethodA()
}

type TypeA struct {
  s string
}

func (v *TypeA) MethodA() {
  fmt.Println("TypeA.MethodA()")
}

type TypeB struct {
  s string
}

func (v *TypeB) MethodA() {
  fmt.Println("TypeB.MethodA()")
}

...

var i SomeInterface
i = &TypeA{"A"}
b := &TypeB{"B"}

a, isTypeA := i.(*TypeA)
fmt.Printf("%v, %t\n", a, isTypeA) // will print {A}, true
b, isTypeB := i.(*TypeB)
fmt.Printf("%v, %t\n", b, isTypeB) // will print <nil>, false

Type Switch

Type assertion with switch:

var i SomeInterface
i = TypeA{"A"}

switch v := i.(type) {
  case TypeA:
	fmt.Printf("TypeA: %v\n", v)
  case TypeB:
	fmt.Printf("TypeB: %v\n", v)
}