How to get the zero value in Go

Getting the zero value in Go is useful especially when validating if some data is empty.

Previously this could only be done with the reflect package but with the introduction of generics in Go 1.18 this can be done with a simple function which takes a type argument and creates a zero value of that type.

package main

import "fmt"

func zero[T any]() T {
    var zero T
    return zero
}

func main() {
    fmt.Println(zero[int]())                    // 0
    fmt.Println(zero[[]string]())               // []
    fmt.Println(zero[struct{ name float64 }]()) // {0}
}

Written by Mykolas Krupauskas. A passionate software developer from Lithuania, currently situated in the Netherlands. Helping people create value with technology.