Solution for Difference in string and *string in Gorm model declaration
is Given Below:
The docs of gorm https://gorm.io/docs/models.html present an example below.
The field Name
and Email
are described with string
and *string
.
What is the main difference here?
Also how to provide the datatype for the images field storing a list of images link?
Should it be []string
or []*string
?
type User struct {
ID uint
Name string
Email *string
Images []string
Age uint8
Birthday *time.Time
MemberNumber sql.NullString
ActivatedAt sql.NullTime
CreatedAt time.Time
UpdatedAt time.Time
}
Go has default values for every primitive data types.
int -> 0, string -> “”, bool -> false likewise. So if you need to add null value, or load null value to a variable, it should be a pointer. Otherwise it is defaulted.
Default value of a pointer is nil in Go.
And complex data types such as slices, maps keep references. So their default value is nil. So, Images []string
here images can be nil.
Below code with pointer types User1
and without pointer types User2
show the difference in default values.
package main
import (
"fmt"
"time"
)
type User1 struct {
Email *string
Images []string
Birthday *time.Time
}
type User2 struct {
Email string
Images []string
Birthday time.Time
}
func main() {
user1 := User1{}
user2 := User2{}
fmt.Printf("user1 := %+v n", user1)
//Output : user1 := {Email:<nil> Images:[] Birthday:<nil>}
fmt.Printf("user2 := %+v n", user2)
//Output : user2 := {Email: Images:[] Birthday:0001-01-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTC}
}
The main difference is that if you use pointers, you can put a null value into the DB, else you must put a string.
Esentially if the database field is nullable, you should use pointers.