Suppose we have the following structure:

type User struct {
    Id    int    
    Name  string 
    Bio   string 
    Email string 
}

We need to verify the validity of the fields in the structure:

· the value of Id is in a range.

· the length of Name is in the range of none.

· Email format is correct.

We might write:

user := User{
        Id:    0,
        Name:  "superlongstring",
        Bio:   "",
        Email: "foobar",
}

if user.Id < 1 && user.Id > 1000 {
    return false
}
if len(user.Name) < 2 && len(user.Name) > 10 {
    return false
}
if !validateEmail(user.Email) {
    return false
}

In this way, the code is redundant, and if a new field is added to the structure, you need to modify the validation function and add an if judgment. The code is redundant. We can use the structTag of golang to solve the above problems:

type User struct {
    Id    int    `validate:"number,min=1,max=1000"`
    Name  string `validate:"string,min=2,max=10"`
    Bio   string `validate:"string"`
    Email string `validate:"email"`
}

validate:"number,min=1,max=1000" is structTag.

Realization ideas

We define an interface Validator and a method Validate. Then define validators such as StringValidator, NumberValidator and EmailValidator to implement the interface Validator.

Complete instance

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "reflect"
    "regexp"
    "strings"
)

const tagName = "validate"

//Mailbox validation regular
var mailRe = regexp.MustCompile(`\A[\w+\-.]+@[a-z\d\-]+(\.[a-z]+)*\.[a-z]+\z`)

//Verification interface
type Validator interface {
    Validate(interface{}) (bool, error)
}

type DefaultValidator struct {
}

func (v DefaultValidator) Validate(val interface{}) (bool, error) {
    return true, nil
}

type StringValidator struct {
    Min int
    Max int
}

func (v StringValidator) Validate(val interface{}) (bool, error) {
    l := len(val.(string))

    if l == 0 {
        return false, fmt.Errorf("cannot be blank")
    }

    if l < v.Min {
        return false, fmt.Errorf("should be at least %v chars long", v.Min)
    }

    if v.Max >= v.Min && l > v.Max {
        return false, fmt.Errorf("should be less than %v chars long", v.Max)
    }

    return true, nil
}


type NumberValidator struct {
    Min int
    Max int
}

func (v NumberValidator) Validate(val interface{}) (bool, error) {
    num := val.(int)

    if num < v.Min {
        return false, fmt.Errorf("should be greater than %v", v.Min)
    }

    if v.Max >= v.Min && num > v.Max {
        return false, fmt.Errorf("should be less than %v", v.Max)
    }

    return true, nil
}

type EmailValidator struct {
}

func (v EmailValidator) Validate(val interface{}) (bool, error) {
    if !mailRe.MatchString(val.(string)) {
        return false, fmt.Errorf("is not a valid email address")
    }
    return true, nil
}

func getValidatorFromTag(tag string) Validator {
    args := strings.Split(tag, ",")

    switch args[0] {
    case "number":
        validator := NumberValidator{}
        //Parsing min and max in structTag into structure
        fmt.Sscanf(strings.Join(args[1:], ","), "min=%d,max=%d", &validator.Min, &validator.Max)
        return validator
    case "string":
        validator := StringValidator{}
        fmt.Sscanf(strings.Join(args[1:], ","), "min=%d,max=%d", &validator.Min, &validator.Max)
        return validator
    case "email":
        return EmailValidator{}
    }

    return DefaultValidator{}
}

func validateStruct(s interface{}) []error {
    errs := []error{}

    v := reflect.ValueOf(s)

    for i := 0; i < v.NumField(); i++ {
        //Getting structTag by reflection
        tag := v.Type().Field(i).Tag.Get(tagName)

        if tag == "" || tag == "-" {
            continue
        }

        validator := getValidatorFromTag(tag)

        valid, err := validator.Validate(v.Field(i).Interface())
        if !valid && err != nil {
            errs = append(errs, fmt.Errorf("%s %s", v.Type().Field(i).Name, err.Error()))
        }
    }

    return errs
}

type User struct {
    Id    int    `validate:"number,min=1,max=1000"`
    Name  string `validate:"string,min=2,max=10"`
    Bio   string `validate:"string"`
    Email string `validate:"email"`
}

func main() {
    user := User{
        Id:    0,
        Name:  "superlongstring",
        Bio:   "",
        Email: "foobar",
    }

    fmt.Println("Errors:")
    for i, err := range validateStruct(user) {
        fmt.Printf("\t%d. %s\n", i+1, err.Error())
    }
}

Actually, there is an existing validation package on github, govalidator, which supports built-in and custom validation Tags:

package main

import (
    "github.com/asaskevich/govalidator"
    "fmt"
    "strings"
)

type Server struct {
    ID         string `valid:"uuid,required"`
    Name       string `valid:"machine_id"`
    HostIP     string `valid:"ip"`
    MacAddress string `valid:"mac,required"`
    WebAddress string `valid:"url"`
    AdminEmail string `valid:"email"`
}

func main() {
    server := &Server{
        ID:         "123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426655440000",
        Name:       "IX01",
        HostIP:     "127.0.0.1",
        MacAddress: "01:23:45:67:89:ab",
        WebAddress: "www.example.com",
        AdminEmail: "admin@exmaple.com",
    }

    //Custom tag validation function
    govalidator.TagMap["machine_id"] = govalidator.Validator(func(str string) bool {
        return strings.HasPrefix(str, "IX")
    })

    if ok, err := govalidator.ValidateStruct(server); err != nil {
        panic(err)
    } else {
        fmt.Printf("OK: %v\n", ok)
    }
}