How to determine an interface{} value's "real" type?

Question

You also can do type switches:

switch v := myInterface.(type) {
case int:
    // v is an int here, so e.g. v + 1 is possible.
    fmt.Printf("Integer: %v", v)
case float64:
    // v is a float64 here, so e.g. v + 1.0 is possible.
    fmt.Printf("Float64: %v", v)
case string:
    // v is a string here, so e.g. v + " Yeah!" is possible.
    fmt.Printf("String: %v", v)
default:
    // And here I'm feeling dumb. ;)
    fmt.Printf("I don't know, ask stackoverflow.")
}

Your example does work. Here's a simplified version.

package main

import "fmt"

func weird(i int) interface{} {
    if i < 0 {
        return "negative"
    }
    return i
}

func main() {
    var i = 42
    if w, ok := weird(7).(int); ok {
        i += w
    }
    if w, ok := weird(-100).(int); ok {
        i += w
    }
    fmt.Println("i =", i)
}

Output:
i = 49

It uses Type assertions.

You can use reflection (reflect.TypeOf()) to get the type of something, and the value it gives (Type) has a string representation (String method) that you can print.

Here is an example of decoding a generic map using both switch and reflection, so if you don't match the type, use reflection to figure it out and then add the type in next time.

var data map[string]interface {}

...

for k, v := range data {
    fmt.Printf("pair:%s\t%s\n", k, v)   

    switch t := v.(type) {
    case int:
        fmt.Printf("Integer: %v\n", t)
    case float64:
        fmt.Printf("Float64: %v\n", t)
    case string:
        fmt.Printf("String: %v\n", t)
    case bool:
        fmt.Printf("Bool: %v\n", t)
    case []interface {}:
        for i,n := range t {
            fmt.Printf("Item: %v= %v\n", i, n)
        }
    default:
        var r = reflect.TypeOf(t)
        fmt.Printf("Other:%v\n", r)             
    }
}

Type switches can also be used with reflection stuff:

var str = "hello!"
var obj = reflect.ValueOf(&str)

switch obj.Elem().Interface().(type) {
case string:
    log.Println("obj contains a pointer to a string")
default:
    log.Println("obj contains something else")
}

There are multiple ways to get a string representation of a type. Switches can also be used with user types:

var user interface{}
user = User{name: "Eugene"}

// .(type) can only be used inside a switch
switch v := user.(type) {
case int:
    // Built-in types are possible (int, float64, string, etc.)
    fmt.Printf("Integer: %v", v)
case User:
    // User defined types work as well  
    fmt.Printf("It's a user: %s\n", user.(User).name)
}

// You can use reflection to get *reflect.rtype
userType := reflect.TypeOf(user)
fmt.Printf("%+v\n", userType)

// You can also use %T to get a string value
fmt.Printf("%T", user)

// You can even get it into a string
userTypeAsString := fmt.Sprintf("%T", user)

if userTypeAsString == "main.User" {
    fmt.Printf("\nIt's definitely a user")
}

Link to a playground: https://play.golang.org/p/VDeNDUd9uK6