What's the meaning of interface{}?

Question

I\'m new to interfaces and trying to do SOAP request by github

I don\'t understand the meaning of

Msg interface{}

in this code:

Answer 1

An example that extends the excellent answer by @VonC and the comment by @NickCraig-Wood. interface{} can point to anything and you need a cast/type assertion to use it.

package main

import (
    . "fmt"
    "strconv"
)

var c = cat("Fish")
var d = dog("Bone")

func main() {
    var i interface{} = c
    switch i.(type) {
    case cat:
        c.Eat() // Fish
    }

    i = d
    switch i.(type) {
    case dog:
        d.Eat() // Bone
    }

    i = "4.3"
    Printf("%T %v\n", i, i) // string 4.3
    s, _ := i.(string)      // type assertion
    f, _ := strconv.ParseFloat(s, 64)
    n := int(f)             // type conversion
    Printf("%T %v\n", n, n) // int 4
}

type cat string
type dog string
func (c cat) Eat() { Println(c) }
func (d dog) Eat() { Println(d) }

i is a variable of an empty interface with a value cat("Fish"). It is legal to create a method value from a value of interface type. See https://golang.org/ref/spec#Interface_types.

A type switch confirms i interface type is cat("Fish") . See https://golang.org/doc/effective_go.html#type_switch. i is then reassigned to dog("Bone"). A type switch confirms that i interface’s type has changed to dog("Bone") .

You can also ask the compiler to check that the type T implements the interface I by attempting an assignment: var _ I = T{}. See https://golang.org/doc/faq#guarantee_satisfies_interface and https://stackoverflow.com/a/60663003/12817546.

All types implement the empty interface interface{}. See https://talks.golang.org/2012/goforc.slide#44 and https://golang.org/ref/spec#Interface_types . In this example, i is reassigned, this time to a string "4.3".i is then assigned to a new string variable s with i.(string) before s is converted to a float64 type f using strconv. Finally f is converted to n an int type equal to 4. See What is the difference between type conversion and type assertion?

Go's built-in maps and slices, plus the ability to use the empty interface to construct containers (with explicit unboxing) mean in many cases it is possible to write code that does what generics would enable, if less smoothly. See https://golang.org/doc/faq#generics.