Skip to content
Gin Web Framework

Try to bind body into different structs

The standard binding methods like c.ShouldBind consume c.Request.Body, which is an io.ReadCloser — once read, it cannot be read again. This means you cannot call c.ShouldBind multiple times on the same request to try different struct shapes.

To solve this, use c.ShouldBindBodyWith. It reads the body once and stores it in the context, allowing subsequent bindings to reuse the cached body.

package main


import (
  "net/http"


  "github.com/gin-gonic/gin"
  "github.com/gin-gonic/gin/binding"
)


type formA struct {
  Foo string `json:"foo" xml:"foo" binding:"required"`
}


type formB struct {
  Bar string `json:"bar" xml:"bar" binding:"required"`
}


func main() {
  router := gin.Default()


  router.POST("/bind", func(c *gin.Context) {
    objA := formA{}
    objB := formB{}
    // This reads c.Request.Body and stores the result into the context.
    if errA := c.ShouldBindBodyWith(&objA, binding.JSON); errA == nil {
      c.JSON(http.StatusOK, gin.H{"message": "matched formA", "foo": objA.Foo})
      return
    }
    // At this time, it reuses body stored in the context.
    if errB := c.ShouldBindBodyWith(&objB, binding.JSON); errB == nil {
      c.JSON(http.StatusOK, gin.H{"message": "matched formB", "bar": objB.Bar})
      return
    }


    c.JSON(http.StatusBadRequest, gin.H{"error": "request body did not match any known format"})
  })


  router.Run(":8080")
}

Test it

Terminal window
# Body matches formA
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/bind \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"foo":"hello"}'
# Output: {"foo":"hello","message":"matched formA"}


# Body matches formB
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/bind \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"bar":"world"}'
# Output: {"bar":"world","message":"matched formB"}

See also