Type conversions

Basic Type Conversion

There are two basic styles of type conversion in Go:

// Simple type conversion
var x := Foo{}    // x is of type Foo
var y := (Bar)Foo // y is of type Bar, unless Foo cannot be cast to Bar, then compile-time error occurs.
// Extended type conversion
var z,ok := x.(Bar)    // z is of type Bar, ok is of type bool - if conversion succeeded, z has the same value as x and ok is true. If it failed, z has the zero value of type Bar, and ok is false.

Testing Interface Implementation

As Go uses implicit interface implementation, you will not get a compile-time error if your struct does not implement an interface you had intended to implement. You can test the implementation explicitly using type casting: type MyInterface interface { Thing() }

type MyImplementer struct {}

func (m MyImplementer) Thing() {
    fmt.Println("Huzzah!")
}

// Interface is implemented, no error. Variable name _ causes value to be ignored.
var _ MyInterface = (*MyImplementer)nil

type MyNonImplementer struct {}

// Compile-time error - cannot case because interface is not implemented.
var _ MyInterface = (*MyNonImplementer)nil

Implement a Unit System with Types

This example illustrates how Go’s type system can be used to implement some unit system.

package main

import (
    "fmt"
)

type MetersPerSecond float64
type KilometersPerHour float64

func (mps MetersPerSecond) toKilometersPerHour() KilometersPerHour {
    return KilometersPerHour(mps * 3.6)
}

func (kmh KilometersPerHour) toMetersPerSecond() MetersPerSecond {
    return MetersPerSecond(kmh / 3.6)
}

func main() {
    var mps MetersPerSecond
    mps = 12.5
    kmh := mps.toKilometersPerHour()
    mps2 := kmh.toMetersPerSecond()
    fmt.Printf("%vmps = %vkmh = %vmps\n", mps, kmh, mps2)
}

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