How do you create a new instance of a struct from its type at run time in Go?

Question

In Go, how do you create the instance of an object from its type at run time? I suppose you would also need to get the actual type of the object first too?

Answer 1

Here's a basic example like Evan Shaw gave, but with a struct:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "reflect"
)

func main() {

    type Product struct {
        Name  string
        Price string
    }

    var product Product
    productType := reflect.TypeOf(product)       // this type of this variable is reflect.Type
    productPointer := reflect.New(productType)   // this type of this variable is reflect.Value. 
    productValue := productPointer.Elem()        // this type of this variable is reflect.Value.
    productInterface := productValue.Interface() // this type of this variable is interface{}
    product2 := productInterface.(Product)       // this type of this variable is product

    product2.Name = "Toothbrush"
    product2.Price = "2.50"

    fmt.Println(product2.Name)
    fmt.Println(product2.Price)

}

Per newacct's response, using Reflect.zero it would be:

   var product Product
   productType := reflect.TypeOf(product)       // this type of this variable is reflect.Type
   productValue := reflect.Zero(productType)    // this type of this variable is reflect.Value
   productInterface := productValue.Interface() // this type of this variable is interface{}
   product2 := productInterface.(Product)       // the type of this variable is Product

This is a great article on the basics of reflection in go.