🧠 ptr — Pointer to Anything

The only generic function you need for pointerizing literals in Go.

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✨ What is ptr?

Go is amazing, but it makes one thing surprisingly awkward:

// You can't do this:
x := &"hello" // 🚫 compile error

You either:

• Make a temp variable like a caveman, or
• Write the same boilerplate helper in every repo.

Let’s fix that:

import "github.com/funnelstory/ptr"

x := ptr.Ptr("hello") // ✅ *string

That’s it. One function. Fully generic. Reusable anywhere. Test-covered. Type-safe.

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📦 Installation

go get github.com/funnelstory/ptr

Or if you're using modules, just import it and go mod tidy will do the rest.

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🧪 Usage

The ptr package exports exactly one thing:

func Ptr[T any](v T) *T

Example:

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"github.com/funnelstory/ptr"
)

func main() {
	s := ptr.Ptr("golang")
	fmt.Println(*s) // Output: golang
}

Works with everything:

ptr.Ptr(42)                   // *int
ptr.Ptr(true)                 // *bool
ptr.Ptr(3.14)                 // *float64
ptr.Ptr([]string{"a", "b"})   // *[]string
ptr.Ptr(map[string]int{})     // *map[string]int
ptr.Ptr(func() {})            // *func()
ptr.Ptr(nil)                  // *any

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💼 Why?

• Avoid boilerplate tmp := val; &tmp
• Helpful in:
  • JSON/YAML marshaling with optional *T fields
  • Config structs
  • Unit testing
  • Working with APIs that use pointer types for optionality
• Tiny and dependency-free
• Idiomatic: one package, one purpose

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🔍 Project Layout

ptr/
├── ptr/
│   └── ptr.go            # <- The one true function
│   └── ptr_test.go       # <- Tests covering many types
├── go.mod
├── Makefile              # <- test, lint, etc.
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       └── ci.yml        # <- GitHub Actions for lint + test

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🧪 Running Tests

go test ./...

Or use the Makefile:

make test

Tests are parallelized and include:

• Primitives
• Structs, maps, slices
• Nested pointers
• Interface and function values
• Nilables

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🧠 Compatibility

• Requires Go 1.18+ (uses generics)
• Works with all built-in and user-defined types
• 100% test coverage

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🚀 Contributing

This is a micro-library, but you’re welcome to contribute:

• Better docs/examples
• More weird test cases
• A Deref[T] companion (?)
• Benchmarks

Open an issue or PR — and please include tests!