qtag

qtag is a small, reflection-based Go package for decoding HTTP query parameters into strongly-typed structs using struct tags.

It is designed to be minimal, dependency-free, and ergonomic.

⚠️ Warning This package is still under active development. APIs, behavior, and tag syntax may change.

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Features

• Decode url.Values into a struct using tags
• Works directly with *http.Request
• Supports common Go scalar types
• Supports encoding.TextUnmarshaler
• Opt-in field decoding via tags
• Ignore fields explicitly
• Planned extensibility (e.g. additional tag options)

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Installation

go get github.com/swamphacks/qtag

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Basic Usage

Add a qt tag to any struct field you want populated from the query string.

type QueryParams struct {
    Limit int64 `qt:"limit"`
    Page  int64 `qt:"page"`
}

Given a request like:

https://example.com/some/endpoint?limit=200&page=2

You can decode it as follows:

var qp QueryParams
err := qtag.Decode(r, &qp)
if err != nil {
    // handle error
}

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Using Unmarshal Directly

If you already have url.Values, you can call Unmarshal directly:

values := url.Values{
    "limit": {"100"},
    "page":  {"1"},
}

var qp QueryParams
err := qtag.Unmarshal(values, &qp)

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Supported Types

Currently supported field types:

• string
• bool
• int
• int64
• float32
• float64
• Any type implementing encoding.TextUnmarshaler

If a field implements encoding.TextUnmarshaler, it will be preferred over built-in parsing.

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Tag Options

Basic Tag

Field string `qt:"field_name"`

Ignore a Field

Use - to explicitly ignore a field:

InternalID string `qt:"-"`

Default Values

Default values are supported via default=... in the tag:

type QueryParams struct {
    Limit int64 `qt:"limit,default=25"`
    Page  int64 `qt:"page,default=1"`
}

If the query parameter is missing or empty, the default value will be used.

Note: Default parsing follows the same rules as normal decoding and must be valid for the field type.

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Error Handling

qtag returns descriptive errors when:

• A non-struct pointer is provided
• A value cannot be parsed into the target type
• An unsupported field type is encountered

Example:

Cannot parse limit with value abc into an integer.