go JSON nightmare - Is there a simple [POSH] ConvertFrom-Json equivalent? - json

Question

In powershell, if I make a REST call and receive any kind of json response, I can easily $json | ConvertFrom-Json into a proper object so I can make modifications, render specific values, whatever.
It seems like in Go I have to either define a struct, or "dynamically" convert using a map[string]interface{}.
The issue with a struct is that I am writing a rest handler for a platform that, depending on the endpoint, serves wildly different JSON responses, like most REST APIs. I don't want to define a struct for all of the dozens of possible responses.
The problem with map[string]interface{} is that it pollutes the data by generating a string with a bunch of ridiculous 'map' prefixes and unwanted [brackets].
ala: [map[current_user_role:admin id:1]]
Is there a way to convert a JSON response like:
{
"current_user_role": "admin",
"id": 1
}
To return a basic:
current_user_role: admin
id: 1
... WITHOUT defining a struct?

Answer 1

Your approach of using a map is right if you don't wish to specify the structure of the data you're receiving. You don't like how it is output from fmt.Println, but I suspect you're confusing the output format with the data representation. Printing them out in the format you find acceptable takes a couple of lines of code, and is not as convenient as in python or powershell, which you may find annoying.
Here's a working example (playground link):
package main
import (
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
"log"
)
var data = []byte(`{
"current_user_role": "admin",
"id": 1
}`)
func main() {
var a map[string]interface{}
if err := json.Unmarshal(data, &a); err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
for k, v := range a {
fmt.Printf("%s: %v\n", k, v)
}
}