Go: Type assertions and type switches

A type assertion provides access to an interface's concrete value.

The type assertion x.(T) asserts that the concrete value stored in x is of type T, and that x is not nil. More precisely:

• If T is not an interface, it asserts that the dynamic type of x is identical to T.
• If T is an interface, it asserts that the dynamic type of x implements T.

var x interface{} = "foo"

var s string = x.(string)
fmt.Println(s)     // "foo"

s, ok := x.(string)
fmt.Println(s, ok) // "foo true"

n, ok := x.(int)
fmt.Println(n, ok) // "0 false"

n = x.(int)        // ILLEGAL

panic: interface conversion: interface {} is string, not int

A type switch performs several type assertions in series and runs the first case with a matching type:

var x interface{} = "foo"

switch v := x.(type) {
case nil:
        fmt.Println("x is nil")            // here v has type interface{}
case int: 
        fmt.Println("x is", v)             // here v has type int
case bool, string:
        fmt.Println("x is bool or string") // here v has type interface{}
default:
        fmt.Println("type unknown")        // here v has type interface{}
}

x is bool or string