How to handle NULL values and SQL NULLs in Go database operations?

In Go, the NULL values and SQL NULLs in database operations can be handled using the database/sql package. Here are a few approaches to handle NULL values:

Using Pointers: One common approach is to use pointers to accommodate NULL values. You can declare variables as pointer types (e.g., *string, *int) and assign nil or a value to represent NULL. For example:

var name *string // pointer variable
var age *int

// Assign NULL values
name = nil
age = nil

Using sql.NullString, sql.NullInt64, etc.: The database/sql package provides Null types (NullString, NullInt64, etc.) that handle NULL values. These types have a valid flag indicating whether the value is NULL or not. For example:

import (
    "database/sql"
    "fmt"
)

var name sql.NullString
var age sql.NullInt64

// Assign NULL values
name.Valid = false
age.Valid = false

Using sql.NullBool for boolean values: For handling NULL values with boolean data, you can use sql.NullBool. It works similar to other Null types:

import (
    "database/sql"
    "fmt"
)

var hasValidValue sql.NullBool

// Assign NULL value
hasValidValue.Valid = false

These approaches allow you to handle NULL values in the Go database operations efficiently and account for the potential absence of data.