Question

I have the following function that is giving me “variable declared and not used” errors:

type Comparison struct {
        Left []byte
        Right []byte
        Name string
}

func img(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request, c appengine.Context, u *user.User) {
  key := datastore.NewKey("Comparison", r.FormValue("id"), 0, nil)
  side := r.FormValue("side")
  comparison := new(Comparison)
  err := datastore.Get(c, key, comparison)
  check(err)

  if( side == "left"){
    m, _, err := image.Decode(bytes.NewBuffer(comparison.Left))
  } else {
    m, _, err := image.Decode(bytes.NewBuffer(comparison.Right))
  }
  check(err)

  w.Header().Set("Content-type", "image/jpeg")
  jpeg.Encode(w, m, nil)
}

It gives me the following errors:

dpcompare.go:171: m declared and not used
dpcompare.go:171: err declared and not used
dpcompare.go:173: m declared and not used
dpcompare.go:173: err declared and not used
dpcompare.go:178: undefined: m
dpcompare.go:185: key declared and not used

The thing is m, err, and key are all being used. I can’t wrap my head around why the compiler thinks thy are not.

Answer 1

As @kostix said, m is local to the scope of the if. Try this code

type Comparison struct {
        Left []byte
        Right []byte
        Name string
}

func img(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request, c appengine.Context, u *user.User) {
  key := datastore.NewKey("Comparison", r.FormValue("id"), 0, nil)
  side := r.FormValue("side")
  comparison := new(Comparison)
  err := datastore.Get(c, key, comparison)
  check(err)

  // NOTE! now m is in the function's scope
  var m Image    
  if( side == "left"){
    m, _, err = image.Decode(bytes.NewBuffer(comparison.Left))
  } else {
    m, _, err = image.Decode(bytes.NewBuffer(comparison.Right))
  }
  check(err)

  w.Header().Set("Content-type", "image/jpeg")
  jpeg.Encode(w, m, nil)
}