Check if struct is empty if struct contains json.RawMessage

Question

I'm trying to create a method extension to check if my struct was initialized but I'm getting this error:

invalid operation: myStruct literal == inStruct (struct containing json.RawMessage cannot be compared)

Here's my code:

package datamodels

import "encoding/json"

type myStruct struct {
        a string json:"a"
        b json.RawMessage json:"b"
        c json.RawMessage json:"c"
    }

func (m *myStruct ) IsEmpty() bool {
    return (myStruct {}) == m 
}

Answer 1

The reason is that json.RawMessage is a Alias for a []byte and maps, slices etc can not be compared normally.

You can compare slices with reflect.DeepEqual method.

See example below.

package main

import "encoding/json"
import "reflect"

type myStruct struct 
{
        a string `json:"a"`
        b json.RawMessage `json:"b"`
        c json.RawMessage `json:"c"`
}   

func (m myStruct ) IsEmpty() bool {
    return reflect.DeepEqual(myStruct{}, m)
}


func main() {
    var mystuff myStruct = myStruct{}

    mystuff.IsEmpty()
}

GOLANG Playground

Reference for comparing slices: How to compare struct, slice, map are equal?

See the RawMessage type. json.RawMessage type: https://golang.org/src/encoding/json/stream.go?s=6218:6240#L237