How to get the json field names of a struct in golang?

Question

What is the way to get the json field names of this struct ?

type example struct {
    Id          int `json:"id"`
    CreatedAt   string `json:"created_at"`
    Tag         string `json:"tag"`
    Text        string `json:"text"`
    AuthorId    int `json:"author_id"`
}

I try to print the fields with this function :

func (b example) PrintFields() {
    val := reflect.ValueOf(b)
    for i := 0; i < val.Type().NumField(); i++ {
        fmt.Println(val.Type().Field(i).Name)
    }
}

Of course I get :

Id
CreatedAt
Tag
Text
AuthorId

But I would like something like :

id
created_at
tag
text
author_id

Answer 1

You use the StructTag type to get the tags. The documentation I linked has examples, look them up, but your code could be something like

func (b example) PrintFields() {
  val := reflect.ValueOf(b)
  for i := 0; i < val.Type().NumField(); i++ {
     fmt.Println(val.Type().Field(i).Tag.Get("json"))
  }
}

NOTE The json tag format supports more than just field names, such as omitempty or string, so if you need an approach that takes care of that too, further improvements to the PrintFields function should be made:

1. we need to check whether the json tag is - (i.e. json:"-")
2. we need to check if name exists and isolate it

Something like this:

func (b example) PrintFields() {
  val := reflect.ValueOf(b)
  for i := 0; i < val.Type().NumField(); i++ {
    t := val.Type().Field(i)
    fieldName := t.Name

    switch jsonTag := t.Tag.Get("json"); jsonTag {
    case "-":
    case "":
        fmt.Println(fieldName)
    default:
        parts := strings.Split(jsonTag, ",")
        name := parts[0]
        if name == "" {
            name = fieldName
        }
        fmt.Println(name)
    }
  }
}

Answer 2

Instead of using StructField's Name, you can use Tag to get a StructTag object. See: https://golang.org/pkg/reflect/#StructTag

Then you can use StructTag's Get or Lookup methods to get the json tag:

Using Get:

func (b example) PrintFields() {
    val := reflect.ValueOf(b)
    for i := 0; i < val.Type().NumField(); i++ {
        // prints empty line if there is no json tag for the field
        fmt.Println(val.Type().Field(i).Tag.Get("json"))
    }
}

Using Lookup:

func (b example) PrintFields() {
    val := reflect.ValueOf(b)
    for i := 0; i < val.Type().NumField(); i++ {
        // skips fields without json tag
        if tag, ok := val.Type().Field(i).Tag.Lookup("json"); ok {
            fmt.Println(tag)
        }
    }
}