proposal: spec: add sum types / discriminated unions

[DemiMarie]

This is a proposal for sum types, also known as discriminated unions. Sum types in Go should essentially act like interfaces, except that:

• they are value types, like structs
• the types contained in them are fixed at compile-time

Sum types can be matched with a switch statement. The compiler checks that all variants are matched. Inside the arms of the switch statement, the value can be used as if it is of the variant that was matched.

[ianlancetaylor]

This has been discussed several times in the past, starting from before the open source release. The past consensus has been that sum types do not add very much to interface types. Once you sort it all out, what you get in the end is an interface type where the compiler checks that you've filled in all the cases of a type switch. That's a fairly small benefit for a new language change.

If you want to push this proposal along further, you will need to write a more complete proposal doc, including: What is the syntax? Precisely how do they work? (You say they are "value types", but interface types are also value types). What are the trade-offs?

[rsc]

See https://www.reddit.com/r/golang/comments/46bd5h/ama_we_are_the_go_contributors_ask_us_anything/d03t6ji/?st=ixp2gf04&sh=7d6920db for some past discussion to be aware of.

[griesemer]

I think this is too significant a change of the type system for Go1 and there's no pressing need.
I suggest we revisit this in the larger context of Go 2.

[rogpeppe]

Thanks for creating this proposal. I've been toying with this idea for a year or so now.
The following is as far as I've got with a concrete proposal. I think
"choice type" might actually be a better name than "sum type", but YMMV.

Sum types in Go

A sum type is represented by two or more types combined with the "|"
operator.

type: type1 | type2 ...

Values of the resulting type can only hold one of the specified types. The
type is treated as an interface type - its dynamic type is that of the
value that's assigned to it.

As a special case, "nil" can be used to indicate whether the value can
become nil.

For example:

type maybeInt nil | int

The method set of the sum type holds the intersection of the method set
of all its component types, excluding any methods that have the same
name but different signatures.

Like any other interface type, sum type may be the subject of a dynamic
type conversion. In type switches, the first arm of the switch that
matches the stored type will be chosen.

The zero value of a sum type is the zero value of the first type in
the sum.

When assigning a value to a sum type, if the value can fit into more
than one of the possible types, then the first is chosen.

For example:

var x int|float64 = 13

would result in a value with dynamic type int, but

var x int|float64 = 3.13

would result in a value with dynamic type float64.

Implementation

A naive implementation could implement sum types exactly as interface
values. A more sophisticated approach could use a representation
appropriate to the set of possible values.

For example a sum type consisting only of concrete types without pointers
could be implemented with a non-pointer type, using an extra value to
remember the actual type.

For sum-of-struct-types, it might even be possible to use spare padding
bytes common to the structs for that purpose.

[bcmills]

@rogpeppe How would that interact with type assertions and type switches? Presumably it would be a compile-time error to have a case on a type (or assertion to a type) that is not a member of the sum. Would it also be an error to have a nonexhaustive switch on such a type?

[josharian]

For type switches, if you have

type T int | interface{}

and you do:

switch t := t.(type) {
  case int:
    // ...

and t contains an interface{} containing an int, does it match the first case? What if the first case is case interface{}?

Or can sum types contain only concrete types?

What about type T interface{} | nil? If you write

var t T = nil

what is t's type? Or is that construction forbidden? A similar question arises for type T []int | nil, so it's not just about interfaces.

[rogpeppe]

Yes, I think it would be reasonable to have a compile-time error
to have a case that can't be matched. Not sure about whether it's
a good idea to allow non-exhaustive switches on such a type - we
don't require exhaustiveness anywhere else. One thing that might
be good though: if the switch is exhaustive, we could not require a default
to make it a terminating statement.

That means that you can get the compiler to error if you have:

func addOne(x int|float64) int|float64 {
    switch x := x.(type) {
    case int:
        return x + 1
    case float64:
         return x + 1
    }
}

and you change the sum type to add an extra case.

[rogpeppe]

For type switches, if you have

type T int | interface{}

and you do:

switch t := t.(type) {
case int:
// ...
and t contains an interface{} containing an int, does it match the first case? What if the first case is case interface{}?

t can't contain an interface{} containing an int. t is an interface
type just like any other interface type, except that it can only
contain the enumerated set of types that it consists of.
Just like an interface{} can't contain an interface{} containing an int.

Sum types can match interface types, but they still just get a concrete
type for the dynamic value. For example, it would be fine to have:

type R io.Reader | io.ReadCloser

What about type T interface{} | nil? If you write

var t T = nil

what is t's type? Or is that construction forbidden? A similar question arises for type T []int | nil, so it's not just about interfaces.

According to the proposal above, you get the first item
in the sum that the value can be assigned to, so
you'd get the nil interface.

In fact interface{} | nil is technically redundant, because any interface{}
can be nil.

For []int | nil, a nil []int is not the same as a nil interface, so the
concrete value of ([]int|nil)(nil) would be []int(nil) not untyped nil.

[bcmills]

The []int | nil case is interesting. I would expect the nil in the type declaration to always mean "the nil interface value", in which case

type T []int | nil
var x T = nil

would imply that x is the nil interface, not the nil []int.

That value would be distinct from the nil []int encoded in the same type:

var y T = []int(nil)  // y != x

[jimmyfrasche]

Wouldn't nil always be required even if the sum is all value types? Otherwise what would var x int64 | float64 be? My first thought, extrapolating from the other rules, would be the zero value of the first type, but then what about var x interface{} | int? It would, as @bcmills points out, have to be a distinct sum nil.

It seems overly subtle.

Exhaustive type switches would be nice. You could always add an empty default: when it's not the desired behavior.