How to Parse Custom Time.Time Fields in Go XML?

Custom XML Parsing for Time.Time Fields in Go

When unmarshaling XML data into a Go struct, you may encounter a situation where the date field format differs from the default time.Time format, leading to an unmarshaling error. This question delves into the options available to specify a custom date format during the unmarshaling process.

The issue stems from the fact that time.Time does not implement the xml.Unmarshaler interface, preventing you from specifying a custom date format. As a solution, you can create a wrapper struct with an anonymous time.Time field and implement your own UnmarshalXML method with the desired date format.

type Transaction struct {
    //...
    DateEntered     customTime     `xml:"enterdate"` // use your own type that satisfies UnmarshalXML
    //...
}

type customTime struct {
    time.Time
}

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

This approach allows you to unmarshal XML documents with custom date formats while maintaining type safety. If the date is stored as an attribute, a similar approach can be used by implementing UnmarshalXMLAttr instead. An example implementation is available at http://play.golang.org/p/EFXZNsjE4a.

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