Convert io.ReadCloser to a String

· 126 words · 1 minute read
#buffer #bytes #closer #get #io #read #string #readcloser #convert

Net/http is an amazing package but there are times you need to work with the body text of the response returned from the call you just made. Many functions require a string as input so we have to convert it first by passing it through a buffer.

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package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "net/http"
    "bytes"
)

func main() {
    response, _ := http.Get("/")

    // The line below would fail because Body = io.ReadCloser
    // fmt.Printf(response.Body)

    // ...so we convert it to a string by passing it through 
    // a buffer first. A 'costly' but useful process.
    buf := new(bytes.Buffer)
    buf.ReadFrom(response.Body)
    newStr := buf.String()

    fmt.Printf(newStr)
}

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Author:  Edd Turtle

Edd is the Lead Developer at Hoowla, a prop-tech startup, where he spends much of his time working on production-ready Go and PHP code. He loves coding, but also enjoys cycling and camping in his spare time.

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