reflect_utils

reflect_utils

reflect_utils is a Go library providing a collection of utility functions to simplify working with the reflect package. It offers helpers for instantiation, type checking, pointer manipulation, and struct tag handling.

Installation

go get github.com/zauberhaus/reflect_utils

Features

Instantiation

• NewT any (T, error): Creates a new instance of type T.
• NewOf(t reflect.Type) (any, error): Creates a new instance of the given reflect.Type. Handles pointers, slices, maps, structs, and interfaces (specifically context.Context).
• NewWithDefaultsOf(t reflect.Type) (any, error): Creates a new instance of the given type and initializes fields based on default struct tags using github.com/creasty/defaults.

Type Checks & Inspection

• IsPointer(value any) bool: Checks if a value, reflect.Value, or reflect.Type is a pointer.
• IsStruct(value any) bool: Checks if a value is a struct (automatically dereferences pointers).
• IsEnum(value any) bool: Checks if a type follows a specific enum convention (looks for an IsA<TypeName> method generated by github.com/dmarkham/enumer).
• IsNil(value any) bool: Safely checks if a value is nil, handling typed nils for pointers, maps, channels, and slices.
• IsEmpty(object any) bool: Checks if a value is "empty" (nil, zero value, or empty collection).
• IsComparable(object any) bool: Checks if a value is comparable.
• HasMethod(value any, method string) bool: Checks if a value has a method with the given name.
• HasField(value any, field string) bool: Checks if a struct (or pointer to struct) has a field with the given name.
• HasDefault(t reflect.Type) bool: Checks if a struct type contains fields with default tags.

Pointer & Memory Utilities

• PtrT any *T: Returns a pointer to the given value.
• CopyToHeap(val any) any: Copies a value to the heap. If the value is already a pointer, it returns it as is.
• FromPointer(val any) any: Dereferences a value if it is a pointer; otherwise returns the value as is.

License

Copyright 2026 Zauberhaus.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0