Allocate provides functions for allocating golang structs so that pointer fields are pointers to zero'd values instead of nil. See the godoc's for more information: https://godoc.org/github.com/cjrd/allocate
package main
import (
"fmt"
"github.com/cjrd/allocate"
)
type TopLevelStruct struct {
MyEmbeddedStruct *EmbeddedStruct
}
type EmbeddedStruct struct {
SomeString string
SomeInt int
}
func main() {
topStruct := new(TopLevelStruct)
fmt.Printf("before using allocate.Zero: %v\n", topStruct)
allocate.Zero(&topStruct)
fmt.Printf("post allocate.Zero: %v\n", topStruct)
fmt.Printf("topStruct.MyEmbeddedStruct.SomeInt==%d\n", topStruct.MyEmbeddedStruct.SomeInt)
// Note that panics would occur by executing `*topStruct.MyEmbeddedStruct` or
//`topStruct.MyEmbeddedStruct.SomeInt`
}# OUTPUT
before using allocate.Zero: &{<nil>}
post allocate.Zero: &{0x8201d2400}
topStruct.MyEmbeddedStruct.SomeInt == 0- Initializing structures that contain any type of pointer fields, including recursive struct fields
- Preventing panics by ensuring that all fields of a struct are initialized
- Initializing golang protobuf struct (the golang protobuf makes heavy use of pointers to embedded structs that contain pointers to embedded structs, ad infinitum)
- Initializing structs for black box testing (see also https://golang.org/pkg/testing/quick/)