Setting existing struct value in Elixir?

Question

Is it possible to have a function for setting values inside an existing struct? I'm talking about the idea of passing the existing struct into a function and setting that structs "name" value (for example)?

What I have:

main.exs

  Code.require_file("user.exs") # Requiring in module

  person1 = User.constructor("Name") # Making a new user

  IO.write inspect person1

user.exs

defmodule User do
  defstruct [name: ""]

  def constructor(name) do
    %User{name: name}
  end
end

Any way to get this idea working?

def setName(struct, newName) do
  struct.name = newName
end

Thanks

Answer 1

Absolutely. There are several ways this can be accomplished.

  defmodule User do
    defstruct name: nil

    # Method 1
    def set_name(user, name) do
      %{user | name: name}
    end

    # Method 2
    def set_name(user, name) do
      user |> struct(%{name: name})
    end

    # Method 3
    def set_name(user, name) do
      user |> Map.put(:name, name)
    end
  end