Interface

Definition

An interface type is defined as a set of method signatures.

A value of interface type can hold any value that implements those methods.

Note: There is an error in the example code on line 22. Vertex (the value type) doesn't implement Abser because the Abs method is defined only on *Vertex (the pointer type).

package main
import (
"fmt"
"math"
)
type Abser interface {
Abs() float64
}
func main() {
var a Abser
f := MyFloat(-math.Sqrt2)
v := Vertex{3, 4}
a = f // a MyFloat implements Abser
a = &v // a *Vertex implements Abser
// In the following line, v is a Vertex (not *Vertex)
// and does NOT implement Abser.
a = v
fmt.Println(a.Abs())
}
type MyFloat float64
func (f MyFloat) Abs() float64 {
if f < 0 {
return float64(-f)
}
return float64(f)
}
type Vertex struct {
X, Y float64
}
func (v *Vertex) Abs() float64 {
return math.Sqrt(v.X*v.X + v.Y*v.Y)
}

Interface names

By convention, one-method interfaces are named by the method name plus an -er suffix or similar modification to construct an agent noun: Reader, Writer, Formatter, CloseNotifier etc.

Interfaces are implemented implicitly

A type implements an interface by implementing its methods. There is no explicit declaration of intent, no "implements" keyword.

Implicit interfaces decouple the definition of an interface from its implementation, which could then appear in any package without prearrangement.

package main
import "fmt"
type I interface {
M()
}
type T struct {
S string
}
// This method means type T implements the interface I,
// but we don't need to explicitly declare that it does so.
func (t T) M() {
fmt.Println(t.S)
}
func main() {
var i I = T{"hello"}
i.M()
}

Interface values

Under the hood, interface values can be thought of as a tuple of a value and a concrete type:

(value, type)

An interface value holds a value of a specific underlying concrete type.

Calling a method on an interface value executes the method of the same name on its underlying type.

package main
import (
"fmt"
"math"
)
type I interface {
M()
}
type T struct {
S string
}
func (t *T) M() {
fmt.Println(t.S)
}
type F float64
func (f F) M() {
fmt.Println(f)
}
func main() {
var i I
i = &T{"Hello"}
describe(i)
i.M()
i = F(math.Pi)
describe(i)
i.M()
}
func describe(i I) {
fmt.Printf("(%v, %T)\n", i, i)
}
/*
(&{Hello}, *main.T)
Hello
(3.141592653589793, main.F)
3.141592653589793
*/

Interface values with nil underlying values

If the concrete value inside the interface itself is nil, the method will be called with a nil receiver.

{% hint style="info" %} Note that an interface value that holds a nil concrete value is itself non-nil. {% endhint %}

package main
import "fmt"
type I interface {
M()
}
type T struct {
S string
}
func (t *T) M() {
if t == nil {
fmt.Println("<nil>")
return
}
fmt.Println(t.S)
}
func main() {
var i I
var t *T
i = t
describe(i)
i.M()
i = &T{"hello"}
describe(i)
i.M()
}
func describe(i I) {
fmt.Printf("(%v, %T)\n", i, i)
}
/*
(<nil>, *main.T)
<nil>
(&{hello}, *main.T)
hello
*/

Nil interface values

A nil interface value holds neither value nor concrete type.

Calling a method on a nil interface is a run-time error because there is no type inside the interface tuple to indicate which concrete method to call.

package main
import "fmt"
type I interface {
M()
}
func main() {
var i I
describe(i)
i.M()
}
func describe(i I) {
fmt.Printf("(%v, %T)\n", i, i)
}
/*
(<nil>, <nil>)
panic: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference
*/

The empty interface

The interface type that specifies zero methods is known as the empty interface:

interface{}

An empty interface may hold values of any type. (Every type implements at least zero methods.)

Empty interfaces are used by code that handles values of unknown type. For example, fmt.Print takes any number of arguments of type interface{}.

package main
import "fmt"
func main() {
var i interface{}
describe(i)
i = 42
describe(i)
i = "hello"
describe(i)
}
func describe(i interface{}) {
fmt.Printf("(%v, %T)\n", i, i)
}
/*
(<nil>, <nil>)
(42, int)
(hello, string)
*/

Type assertions

A type assertion provides access to an interface value's underlying concrete value.

t := i.(T)

This statement asserts that the interface value i holds the concrete type T and assigns the underlying T value to the variable t.

If i does not hold a T, the statement will trigger a panic.

To test whether an interface value holds a specific type, a type assertion can return two values: the underlying value and a boolean value that reports whether the assertion succeeded.

t, ok := i.(T)

If i holds a T, then t will be the underlying value and ok will be true.

If not, ok will be false and t will be the zero value of type T, and no panic occurs.

Note the similarity between this syntax and that of reading from a map.

package main
import "fmt"
func main() {
var i interface{} = "hello"
s := i.(string)
fmt.Println(s)
s, ok := i.(string)
fmt.Println(s, ok)
f, ok := i.(float64)
fmt.Println(f, ok)
f = i.(float64) // panic
fmt.Println(f)
}
/*
hello
hello true
0 false
panic: interface conversion: interface {} is string, not float64
*/

Type switches

A type switch is a construct that permits several type assertions in series.

A type switch is like a regular switch statement, but the cases in a type switch specify types (not values), and those values are compared against the type of the value held by the given interface value.

switch v := i.(type) {
case T:
// here v has type T
case S:
// here v has type S
default:
// no match; here v has the same type as i
}

The declaration in a type switch has the same syntax as a type assertion i.(T), but the specific type T is replaced with the keyword type.

This switch statement tests whether the interface value i holds a value of type T or S. In each of the T and S cases, the variable v will be of type T or S respectively and hold the value held by i. In the default case (where there is no match), the variable v is of the same interface type and value as i.

Practices

  • Use many, small interfaces
    • Single method interfaces are some of the most powerful and flexible
      • io.Writer, io.Reader, interface{}
  • Don't export interfaces for types that will be consumed
  • Do export interfaces for types that will be used by package
  • Design functions and methods to receive interfaces whenever possible
    • concrete type for fields access
    • but interfaces for behaviours

Stringers

One of the most ubiquitous interfaces is Stringer defined by the fmt package.

type Stringer interface {
String() string
}

A Stringer is a type that can describe itself as a string. The fmt package (and many others) look for this interface to print values.

package main
import "fmt"
type Person struct {
Name string
Age int
}
func (p Person) String() string {
return fmt.Sprintf("%v (%v years)", p.Name, p.Age)
}
func main() {
a := Person{"Arthur Dent", 42}
z := Person{"Zaphod Beeblebrox", 9001}
fmt.Println(a, z)
}
// Arthur Dent (42 years) Zaphod Beeblebrox (9001 years)

Errors

Go programs express error state with error values.

The error type is a built-in interface similar to fmt.Stringer:

type error interface {
Error() string
}

(As with fmt.Stringer, the fmt package looks for the error interface when printing values.)

Functions often return an error value, and calling code should handle errors by testing whether the error equals nil.

i, err := strconv.Atoi("42")
if err != nil {
fmt.Printf("couldn't convert number: %v\n", err)
return
}
fmt.Println("Converted integer:", i)

A nil error denotes success; a non-nil error denotes failure.

package main
import (
"fmt"
"time"
)
type MyError struct {
When time.Time
What string
}
func (e *MyError) Error() string {
return fmt.Sprintf("at %v, %s",
e.When, e.What)
}
func run() error {
return &MyError{
time.Now(),
"it didn't work",
}
}
func main() {
if err := run(); err != nil {
fmt.Println(err)
}
}
// at 2009-11-10 23:00:00 +0000 UTC m=+0.000000001, it didn't work

Infinite loop

type ErrNegativeSqrt float64
func (e ErrNegativeSqrt) Error() string {
return fmt.Sprintf("cannot Sqrt negative number: %v", float64(e))
// infinite loop if:
//return fmt.Sprintf("cannot Sqrt negative number: %v", e)
}

Because the implementation of fmt package, error type was checked before Stringer.

Readers

The io package specifies the io.Reader interface, which represents the read end of a stream of data.

The Go standard library contains many implementations of these interfaces, including files, network connections, compressors, ciphers, and others.

The io.Reader interface has a Read method:

func (T) Read(b []byte) (n int, err error)

Read populates the given byte slice with data and returns the number of bytes populated and an error value. It returns an io.EOF error when the stream ends.

The example code creates a strings.Reader and consumes its output 8 bytes at a time.

package main
import (
"fmt"
"io"
"strings"
)
func main() {
r := strings.NewReader("Hello, Reader!")
b := make([]byte, 8)
for {
n, err := r.Read(b)
fmt.Printf("n = %v err = %v b = %v\n", n, err, b)
fmt.Printf("b[:n] = %q\n", b[:n])
if err == io.EOF {
break
}
}
}
/*
n = 8 err = <nil> b = [72 101 108 108 111 44 32 82]
b[:n] = "Hello, R"
n = 6 err = <nil> b = [101 97 100 101 114 33 32 82]
b[:n] = "eader!"
n = 0 err = EOF b = [101 97 100 101 114 33 32 82]
b[:n] = ""
*/

Images

Package image defines the Image interface:

package image
type Image interface {
ColorModel() color.Model
Bounds() Rectangle
At(x, y int) color.Color
}

Note: the Rectangle return value of the Bounds method is actually an image.Rectangle, as the declaration is inside package image.

(See the documentation for all the details.)

The color.Color and color.Model types are also interfaces, but we'll ignore that by using the predefined implementations color.RGBA and color.RGBAModel. These interfaces and types are specified by the image/color package

package main
import (
"fmt"
"image"
)
func main() {
m := image.NewRGBA(image.Rect(0, 0, 100, 100))
fmt.Println(m.Bounds())
fmt.Println(m.At(0, 0).RGBA())
}
/*
(0,0)-(100,100)
0 0 0 0
*/
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