When to Avoid Reflection in Go

Avoid reflection in Go when you need maximum performance, type safety, or when the compiler can optimize static types away. Reflection is significantly slower than direct type access and prevents the compiler from inlining or optimizing code paths. Use it only for generic libraries, serialization, or frameworks where static typing is impossible.

// Avoid: Slow, unsafe, no compile-time checks
func GetValue(i interface{}) any {
    return reflect.ValueOf(i).Field(0).Interface()
}

// Prefer: Fast, safe, optimized
func GetValue(s MyStruct) string {
    return s.Name
}

Reflection lets your code inspect and modify other code while it runs, like looking at a car's engine while driving. It is slow and risky because the compiler can't check for errors beforehand. Only use it when you absolutely cannot write specific code for each type, such as in a database driver or JSON parser.