How to Unmarshal XML Fields of Type time.Time with Custom Date Formats in Golang?

Unmarshal XML Fields of Type time.Time in Golang

When working with XML data retrieval using the REST API in Golang, it is not uncommon to encounter a date field that does not conform to the default time.Time parse format. This discrepancy can result in unmarshaling failures when attempting to assign the retrieved date to a time.Time field in a GO struct.

Unfortunately, there is no straightforward way to explicitly specify the desired date format to the unmarshal function. However, a workaround exists that involves defining a custom struct to represent the date field with the desired format.

Here's how it can be achieved:

1. Create an anonymous customTime struct that embeds the time.Time type.
2. Implement the necessary UnmarshalXML method within the customTime struct to handle the unmarshaling process.
3. Customize the date parsing logic within UnmarshalXML to accommodate the "yyyymmdd" date format used by the API.
4. Use the customTime struct to replace the original time.Time field in your Transaction struct.

Here's an example code demonstrating this approach:

type Transaction struct {
    // ... other fields
    DateEntered customTime `xml:"enterdate"` // Use customTime to handle specific date format
}

type customTime struct {
    time.Time
}

func (c *customTime) UnmarshalXML(d *xml.Decoder, start xml.StartElement) error {
    const shortForm = "20060102" // Custom date format: "yyyymmdd"
    var v string
    d.DecodeElement(&v, &start)
    parse, err := time.Parse(shortForm, v)
    if err != nil {
        return err
    }
    *c = customTime{parse}
    return nil
}

By employing this approach, you can overcome the limitation of specifying a date format during the unmarshaling process and seamlessly handle dates that do not conform to the default format.

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