How to avoid long switch-case statement in Go
I'm writing a chatbot in Go and wondering how I can avoid a long switch-case statement like this:
switch {
// @bot search me HMAC
case strings.Contains(message, "search me"):
query := strings.Split(message, "search me ")[1]
return webSearch(query), "html"
// @bot thesaurus me challenge
case strings.Contains(message, "thesaurus me"):
query := strings.Split(message, "thesaurus me ")[1]
return synonyms(query), "html"
Should I define these handlers each in a separate package or should I just use structs and interfaces? What method will allow me to have a good structure, avoid the switch case, and allow external developers to make it easier to create handlers?
I think packages would be the best choice, but I'm not sure how to register handlers with the main bot. Nice to appreciate the example.
You can use map[string]command
similar to how the package net/http
registers handlers. Something similar to this:
https://play.golang.org/p/9YzHyLodAQ
package main
import (
"fmt"
"errors"
)
type BotFunc func(string) (string, error)
type BotMap map[string]BotFunc
var Bot = BotMap{}
func (b BotMap) RegisterCommand(command string, f BotFunc) error {
if _, exists := b[command]; exists {
return errors.New("command already exists")
}
b[command] = f
return nil
}
func (b BotMap) Execute(statement string) (string, error) {
// parse out command and query however you choose (not this way obviously)
command := statement[:9]
query := statement[10:]
return b.ExecuteQuery(command, query)
}
func (b BotMap) ExecuteQuery(command, query string) (string, error) {
if com, exists := b[command]; exists {
return com(query)
}
return "", errors.New("command doesn't exist")
}
func main() {
err := Bot.RegisterCommand("search me", func(query string) (string, error) {
fmt.Println("search", query)
return "searched", nil
})
if err != nil {
fmt.Println(err)
return
}
err = Bot.RegisterCommand("thesaurus me", func(query string) (string, error) {
fmt.Println("thesaurus", query)
return "thesaurused", nil
})
if err != nil {
fmt.Println(err)
return
}
result, err := Bot.Execute("search me please")
if err != nil {
fmt.Println(err)
return
}
fmt.Println(result)
}
Obviously there are many disadvantages here, but this is the main idea.