go-genums

README

go-genums

Utility to generate type-checked enums, friendly for usage with go:generate.

Usage

Example:

genums Day day int examples/dayEnum/main.go

In the above command line:

• Day is the prefix of the enum interface name that will be generated e.g. DayEnum
• day is the (internal, in this case) prefix used in the constant identifiers declared in the user-provided Go source
• int is the type of the declared constants in the user-provided Go source
• examples/dayEnum/main.go is the user-provided Go source file name that already contains a Go const enum

The generated code will provide:

• an interface type for the enum, DayEnum
• a func returning a slice of all valid enum values, DayEnumValues()
• a factory method to cast values into a valid enum, NewDayFromValue(v int)
• a factory method that exclusively casts values into a valid enum and panics otherwise, MustGetDayFromValue(v int)
• a set of struct types (one for each legit enum value) that all satisfy the enum interface, DayEnum

Features overview

Comparing two enum values will yield the intuitively expected result:

a := Monday{}.New()
b := Monday{}.New()

fmt.Println(a == b) // prints true

You can use a type switch to evaluate the interface-typed enum values:

switch a.(type) {
	case Monday:
		fmt.Println("Found the right day")
	default:
		panic("Cannot find the right day!")
}

If you put the generated code in a package the .value field becomes inaccessible, thus all enum values will be immutable and even safer to use.

Each enum value has a String() method that returns its descriptive name (same as Go identifier) and a Value() method that returns the correspondent value defined in the user-provided source.

How to not use

Do not use the enum types without calling their New() method:

a := Tuesday{}
b := Friday{}

fmt.Println(a == b) // returns true

fmt.Println(Tuesday.Value()) // returns 0, which is the default for any uninitialised variable in Go

Preferably, put your enums in a package so that they are sealed and you will not be able to inadvertenty do something like:

a.value++

Examples

See examples/ for integer, string and struct examples.

License

go-genums is licensed under an MIT license.