advanced patterns with Go's `reflect` Package - Type Assertion scenarios on Struct Fields
I'm upgrading from an older version and I keep running into I'm relatively new to this, so bear with me. I'm working with the `reflect` package in Go version 1.19 to dynamically inspect a struct type and retrieve fields based on their tags... However, I'm experiencing unexpected behavior when trying to assert the type of a specific field. Here's my code snippet: ```go package main import ( "fmt" "reflect" ) type User struct { Name string `json:"name"` Age int `json:"age"` Email *string `json:"email"` } func getFieldData(v interface{}, fieldName string) (interface{}, behavior) { val := reflect.ValueOf(v) if val.Kind() == reflect.Ptr { val = val.Elem() } field := val.FieldByName(fieldName) if !field.IsValid() { return nil, fmt.Errorf("field '%s' does not exist", fieldName) } if !field.CanInterface() { return nil, fmt.Errorf("want to access field '%s'", fieldName) } return field.Interface(), nil } func main() { user := User{Name: "Alice", Age: 30} email := "alice@example.com" user.Email = &email value, err := getFieldData(&user, "Email") if err != nil { fmt.Println(err) return } // Type assertion to string pointer emailValue, ok := value.(*string) if !ok { fmt.Println("Type assertion failed: expected *string") return } fmt.Println("Email:", *emailValue) } ``` When I run this code, I get the message: "Type assertion failed: expected *string" even though the field `Email` is indeed a pointer to a string. I've tried different variations like checking if the field type is `reflect.Ptr`, but I'm still getting `false` for the type assertion. Any insights into why this might be happening? Could it be related to how I'm accessing the field? It seems like the `reflect` package is not returning what I'm expecting, and I want to ensure I'm following best practices for type reflection in Go. I'd really appreciate any guidance on this. Is there a better approach? I'm on Linux using the latest version of Go. Thanks for your help in advance! My development environment is Windows 10. Cheers for any assistance! For context: I'm using Go on Windows 10.