json: cannot unmarshal object into a Go struct field

PROBLEM

json: cannot unmarshal object into Go struct field

CODE

package main
import (
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
)
// DTO object
type mould struct {
	Particle tiny
}
type tiny interface {
	GetName() string
}
// Implement the interface
type speck struct {
	Name string `json:"name"`
}
func (s *speck) GetName() string {
	return s.Name
}
// Constructor
func NewSpeck(name string) tiny {
	return &speck{
		Name: name,
	}
}
//
func main() {
	dirt := NewSpeck("space")
	brown := &mould{}
	brown.Particle = dirt
	brownBytes, err := json.Marshal(brown)
	if err != nil {
		panic("marshal error")
	}
	brownLike := &mould{} // unmarshal has no "idea" of how to unpack!
	err = json.Unmarshal(brownBytes, &brownLike)
	if err != nil {
		panic("unmarshal err=%+v\n", err)
		return
	}
}

Go Playground Link

The error is:

go run unmarshal_interface.go
panic: json: cannot unmarshal object into Go struct field mould.Particle of type main.tiny

The problem with code is the inability of the Go runtime to get the target struct for unmarshaling.

Unmarshal essentially copies the byte array to a struct type. However, in the case of the unmarshal of the type tiny, runtime could not find any destination struct. The interface in Go just has behavior, not types.

SOLUTIONS

1. Easy! Don’t return interface in a function. 🙂
2. Help the runtime and add some info on the destination struct.

// solution
brownLike2 := &mould{}
brownLike2.Particle = &speck{} // Now unmarshal "knows" how to unpack the byte array!

err = json.Unmarshal(brownBytes, &brownLike2)
fmt.Printf("brownLike2=%#v err=%+v\n", brownLike2.Particle.GetName(), err)

REFERENCES

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47063079/cannot-unmarshal-string-into-go-struct-field?rq=1