Is it possible to get Enum name without creating String() in Golang

Question

Is it possible to get Enum name without creating func (TheEnum) String() string in Golang?

const (
 MERCURY = 1
 VENUS = iota
 EARTH
 MARS
 JUPI         


        

Answer 1

AFAIK, no you can't do that without explicitly typing the name as a string. But you can use the stringer tool from the standard tools package to do it for you:

For example, given this snippet,

package painkiller

type Pill int

const (
    Placebo Pill = iota
    Aspirin
    Ibuprofen
    Paracetamol
    Acetaminophen = Paracetamol
)

running this command

stringer -type=Pill

in the same directory will create the file pill_string.go, in package painkiller, containing a definition of

func (Pill) String() string

This is recommended to use with the go generate command of Go 1.4+.

Answer 2

As a supplement:
Use the following comment in the code can help go generate know what to generate. Be careful, there is no space between // and go:generate

//go:generate stringer -type=Pill
type Pill int

const (
    Placebo Pill = iota
    Aspirin
    Ibuprofen
    Paracetamol
    Acetaminophen = Paracetamol
)