What is an idiomatic way of representing enums in Go?

Solution 1:

Quoting from the language specs:Iota

Within a constant declaration, the predeclared identifier iota represents successive untyped integer constants. It is reset to 0 whenever the reserved word const appears in the source and increments after each ConstSpec. It can be used to construct a set of related constants:

const (  // iota is reset to 0
        c0 = iota  // c0 == 0
        c1 = iota  // c1 == 1
        c2 = iota  // c2 == 2
)

const (
        a = 1 << iota  // a == 1 (iota has been reset)
        b = 1 << iota  // b == 2
        c = 1 << iota  // c == 4
)

const (
        u         = iota * 42  // u == 0     (untyped integer constant)
        v float64 = iota * 42  // v == 42.0  (float64 constant)
        w         = iota * 42  // w == 84    (untyped integer constant)
)

const x = iota  // x == 0 (iota has been reset)
const y = iota  // y == 0 (iota has been reset)

Within an ExpressionList, the value of each iota is the same because it is only incremented after each ConstSpec:

const (
        bit0, mask0 = 1 << iota, 1<<iota - 1  // bit0 == 1, mask0 == 0
        bit1, mask1                           // bit1 == 2, mask1 == 1
        _, _                                  // skips iota == 2
        bit3, mask3                           // bit3 == 8, mask3 == 7
)

This last example exploits the implicit repetition of the last non-empty expression list.

So your code might be like

const (
        A = iota
        C
        T
        G
)

or

type Base int

const (
        A Base = iota
        C
        T
        G
)

if you want bases to be a separate type from int.

Solution 2:

Referring to the answer of jnml, you could prevent new instances of Base type by not exporting the Base type at all (i.e. write it lowercase). If needed, you may make an exportable interface that has a method that returns a base type. This interface could be used in functions from the outside that deal with Bases, i.e.

package a

type base int

const (
    A base = iota
    C
    T
    G
)


type Baser interface {
    Base() base
}

// every base must fulfill the Baser interface
func(b base) Base() base {
    return b
}


func(b base) OtherMethod()  {
}

package main

import "a"

// func from the outside that handles a.base via a.Baser
// since a.base is not exported, only exported bases that are created within package a may be used, like a.A, a.C, a.T. and a.G
func HandleBasers(b a.Baser) {
    base := b.Base()
    base.OtherMethod()
}


// func from the outside that returns a.A or a.C, depending of condition
func AorC(condition bool) a.Baser {
    if condition {
       return a.A
    }
    return a.C
}

Inside the main package a.Baser is effectively like an enum now. Only inside the a package you may define new instances.