Use function that accepts io.Writer as HandleFunc

Question

I would like to make a function that can be a HandleFunc for http but also be called with another writer.

Since http.ResponseWriter implements io.Writer and my function does not need to set HTTP headers, I thought it might be possible:

func doit(w io.Writer, r *http.Request) {
  w.Write([]byte("Hello"))
}

http.HandleFunc("/", doit)

But no:

cannot use doit (type func(io.Writer, *http.Request)) as type func(http.ResponseWriter, *http.Request) in argument to http.HandleFunc

That makes sense, because it would require a type assertion to make an io.Writer compatible with an expected http.ResponseWriter.

Is something like that possible with functions?

Answer 1

Spec: Function types:

A function type denotes the set of all functions with the same parameter and result types.

Your doit() function does not qualify to be an http.HandlerFunc because parameter types do not match. The types io.Writer and http.ResponseWriter are 2 completely different types, so the function types taking these types are also different.

Using an anonymous function value

However, since the method set of the interface type io.Writer is a subset of the method set of http.ResponseWriter, a value of the latter type can be assigned to the variable of the former type.

You may wrap it in an anonymous function of type http.HandlerFunc which may simply call doit(), and then you may use it as an http.HandlerFunc:

http.HandleFunc("/", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    doit(w, r)
})

Anonymous function value with helper function

If you need this many times, you may create a helper function to produce the http.HandlerFunc function value:

func wrap(f func(w io.Writer, r *http.Request)) http.HandlerFunc {
    return func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
        f(w, r)
    }
}

And then using it is simply:

http.HandleFunc("/", wrap(doit))

With custom Handler type

Another option would be to define your own function type, to which you can attach a simple method to implement http.Handler (namely ServeHTTP()), and that way with a simple type conversion you can register your function as a handler:

type SimpleHandler func(io.Writer, *http.Request)

func (sh SimpleHandler) ServeHTTP(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    sh(w, r)
}

Using it:

http.Handle("/", SimpleHandler(doit))

Note that the expression SimpleHandler(doit) is simply a type conversion, it's not a function call. So there are no new values or anonymous functions created here in the background, this solution is the most efficient.