Addressing potential null fields in go's sqlx [duplicate] - postgresql

Question

Go types like Int64 and String cannot store null values,
so I found I could use sql.NullInt64 and sql.NullString for this.
But when I use these in a Struct,
and generate JSON from the Struct with the json package,
then the format is different to when I use regular Int64 and String types.
The JSON has an additional level because the sql.Null*** is also a Struct.
Is there a good workaround for this,
or should I not use NULLs in my SQL database?

Answer 1

Types like sql.NullInt64 do not implement any special handling for JSON marshaling or unmarshaling, so the default rules apply. Since the type is a struct, it gets marshalled as an object with its fields as attributes.
One way to work around this is to create your own type that implements the json.Marshaller / json.Unmarshaler interfaces. By embedding the sql.NullInt64 type, we get the SQL methods for free. Something like this:
type JsonNullInt64 struct {
sql.NullInt64
}
func (v JsonNullInt64) MarshalJSON() ([]byte, error) {
if v.Valid {
return json.Marshal(v.Int64)
} else {
return json.Marshal(nil)
}
}
func (v *JsonNullInt64) UnmarshalJSON(data []byte) error {
// Unmarshalling into a pointer will let us detect null
var x *int64
if err := json.Unmarshal(data, &x); err != nil {
return err
}
if x != nil {
v.Valid = true
v.Int64 = *x
} else {
v.Valid = false
}
return nil
}
If you use this type in place of sql.NullInt64, it should be encoded as you expect.
You can test this example here: http://play.golang.org/p/zFESxLcd-c

Answer 2

If you use the null.v3 package, you won't need to implement any of the marshal or unmarshal methods. It's a superset of the sql.Null structs and is probably what you want.
package main
import "gopkg.in/guregu/null.v3"
type Person struct {
Name string `json:"id"`
Age int `json:"age"`
NickName null.String `json:"nickname"` // Optional
}
If you'd like to see a full Golang webserver that uses sqlite, nulls, and json you can consult this gist.