Learn by doing: a reflection in Golang Random text , searched from google images A few a months ago, I was creating a simple library in golang, to help golang engineers when testing their function. It just a simple library that will generate fake and random data based on their struct. The idea comes when I was creating unit testing in every function I have, and making different struct , it’s a wasting time. The libary can seen here _faker - Go (Golang) Fake Data Generator for Struct_github.com bxcodec/faker How to use it : $ go get github.com/bxcodec/faker Then import into your test file. This simple library I made with utilizing the reflection feature in golang. The work is simple , you only define you struct and my library will generate you a dummy data based on your struct. Example : When you run that your object will filled with random data : $ go run main.go$ {Int:37 String:LOftACEPfclEWQDBqAaaqyVis Bool:false SString:[yWgdkZQtbTmi] Struct:{Number:36 Height:0.021622694665801242AnotherStruct:{Image:wUvHuSlyJYknWbqUbWtYGrMrZ}}} Even you have a nested struct, as long as they do not pointer struct , they will safe to generated. Good, How did you do that? Reflection In golang, there is a built in package that we can use for reflection data type it’s called . You can see what can do in the official documentations reflect reflect https://golang.org/pkg/reflect/ Basically , I just , then . get the data type random data based on it’s type var a int64 ref :=reflect.ValueOf(&a) // // // will return reflect.Value objects ; Pass with refferences for data manipulation ref=reflect.Indirect(ref) // // accessing the value only that pointed by ref kind:= ref.Kind() // will return the kind of the reflected value if kind == reflect.Int64{ val:= int64(100) // // Data will assigned. For fake data, this should randomized ref.Set(reflect.ValueOf( )) // } val Set the value fmt.Println("Value of a ", a) // Will print 100 Live example you could run here _The playground service is used by more than just the official Go project ( Go by Example is one other instance) and we…_play.golang.org The Go Playground Just as simple as it. Now I can generate a dummy data for my struct and help me when doing automation testing with random data. But, this library still need more improvements, because it’s still can’t randomize data for array of struct. I’ve tried many ways, but still not good, maybe it’s impossible to do, or maybe I still need to learn more. Happy coding…. :) If you have a question , or need more explanation, or something, that I can not explain well here, you can ask me from my linkedin or email me. Thank you _Independent, Testable , and Clean_hackernoon.com Trying Clean Architecture on Golang _Guide to make gRPC service using clean architecture in golang._toolbox.kurio.co.id Implementing gRPC service in Golang _Flatbuffer for serializing data._toolbox.kurio.co.id I’m Learning to Use Flatbuffer in Go (Golang) , Here What I Learn
