Go offers built-in support for JSON encoding anddecoding, including to and from built-in and customdata types. | |
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import "encoding/json"
import "fmt"
import "os"
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We’ll use these two structs to demonstrate encoding anddecoding of custom types below. |
type Response1 struct {
Page int
Fruits []string
}
type Response2 struct {
Page int `json:"page"`
Fruits []string `json:"fruits"`
}
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First we’ll look at encoding basic data types toJSON strings. Here are some examples for atomicvalues. |
bolB, _ := json.Marshal(true)
fmt.Println(string(bolB))
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intB, _ := json.Marshal(1)
fmt.Println(string(intB))
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fltB, _ := json.Marshal(2.34)
fmt.Println(string(fltB))
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strB, _ := json.Marshal("gopher")
fmt.Println(string(strB))
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And here are some for slices and maps, which encodeto JSON arrays and objects as you’d expect. |
slcD := []string{"apple", "peach", "pear"}
slcB, _ := json.Marshal(slcD)
fmt.Println(string(slcB))
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mapD := map[string]int{"apple": 5, "lettuce": 7}
mapB, _ := json.Marshal(mapD)
fmt.Println(string(mapB))
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The JSON package can automatically encode yourcustom data types. It will only include exportedfields in the encoded output and will by defaultuse those names as the JSON keys. |
res1D := &Response1{
Page: 1,
Fruits: []string{"apple", "peach", "pear"}}
res1B, _ := json.Marshal(res1D)
fmt.Println(string(res1B))
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You can use tags on struct field declarationsto customize the encoded JSON key names. Check thedefinition of Response2 above to see an exampleof such tags. |
res2D := &Response2{
Page: 1,
Fruits: []string{"apple", "peach", "pear"}}
res2B, _ := json.Marshal(res2D)
fmt.Println(string(res2B))
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Now let’s look at decoding JSON data into Govalues. Here’s an example for a generic datastructure. |
byt := []byte(`{"num":6.13,"strs":["a","b"]}`)
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We need to provide a variable where the JSONpackage can put the decoded data. Thismap[string]interface{} will hold a map of stringsto arbitrary data types. |
var dat map[string]interface{}
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Here’s the actual decoding, and a check forassociated errors. |
if err := json.Unmarshal(byt, &dat); err != nil {
panic(err)
}
fmt.Println(dat)
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In order to use the values in the decoded map,we’ll need to cast them to their appropriate type.For example here we cast the value in num tothe expected float64 type. |
num := dat["num"].(float64)
fmt.Println(num)
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Accessing nested data requires a series ofcasts. |
strs := dat["strs"].([]interface{})
str1 := strs[0].(string)
fmt.Println(str1)
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We can also decode JSON into custom data types.This has the advantages of adding additionaltype-safety to our programs and eliminating theneed for type assertions when accessing the decodeddata. |
str := `{"page": 1, "fruits": ["apple", "peach"]}`
res := Response2{}
json.Unmarshal([]byte(str), &res)
fmt.Println(res)
fmt.Println(res.Fruits[0])
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In the examples above we always used bytes andstrings as intermediates between the data andJSON representation on standard out. We can alsostream JSON encodings directly to os.Writer s likeos.Stdout or even HTTP response bodies. |
enc := json.NewEncoder(os.Stdout)
d := map[string]int{"apple": 5, "lettuce": 7}
enc.Encode(d)
}
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