An interface can be embedded in another interface as well as it can be embedded in a struct. Let’s look at each one by one

Embedding interface in another interface

An interface can embed any number of interfaces in it as well as it can be embedded in any interface. All the methods of the embedded interface become part of the embedding interface. It is a way of creating a new interface by merging some small interfaces. Let’s understand it with an example

Assume we have an interface animal as below

type animal interface {
breathe()
walk()
}

Let’s say there is another interface named human which embeds the animal interface

type human interface {
animal
speak()
}

So if any type needs to implement the human interface, then it has to define

• breathe() and walk() method of animal interfaces animal is  embedded in human

• speak() method of human interface

package main
import "fmt"
type animal interface {
breathe()
walk()
}
type human interface {
animal
speak()
}
type employee struct {
name string
}
func (e employee) breathe() {
fmt.Println("Employee breathes")
}
func (e employee) walk() {
fmt.Println("Employee walk")
}
func (e employee) speak() {
fmt.Println("Employee speaks")
}
func main() {
var h human
h = employee{name: "John"}
h.breathe()
h.walk()
h.speak()
}

Output

Employee breathes
Employee walk
Employee speaks

As another example, the ReaderWriter interface of the io package of golang (https://golang.org/pkg/io/#ReadWriter) embeds two other interfaces

• The reader interface  – https://golang.org/pkg/io/#Reader

• The writer interface   – https://golang.org/pkg/io/#Writer

type ReadWriter interface {
Reader
Writer
}

Embedding interface in a struct

An interface can be embedded in a struct as well.  All the methods of the embedded interface can be called via that struct. How these methods will be called will depend upon whether the embedded interface is a named field or an unnamed/anonymous field. 

• If the embedded interface is a named field, then interface methods have to be called via the named interface name

• If the embedded interface is unnamed/anonymous field then interface methods can be referred directly or via the interface name

Let’s see a program illustrating above points

package main
import "fmt"
type animal interface {
breathe()
walk()
}
type dog struct {
age int
}
func (d dog) breathe() {
fmt.Println("Dog breathes")
}
func (d dog) walk() {
fmt.Println("Dog walk")
}
type pet1 struct {
a animal
name string
}
type pet2 struct {
animal
name string
}
func main() {
d := dog{age: 5}
p1 := pet1{name: "Milo", a: d}
fmt.Println(p1.name)
// p1.breathe()
// p1.walk()
p1.a.breathe()
p1.a.walk()
p2 := pet2{name: "Oscar", animal: d}
fmt.Println(p1.name)
p2.breathe()
p2.walk()
p1.a.breathe()
p1.a.walk()
}

Output

Milo
Dog breathes
Dod walk
Oscar
Dog breathes
Dog walk
Dog breathes
Dog walk

We declared two struct pet1 and pet2.  pet1 struct has named animal interface in it

type pet1 struct {
a animal
name string
}

pet2 has unnamed/anonymous animal interface embedded

type pet2 struct {
animal
name string
}

For an instance of pet1 struct we call the breathe() and walk() method like this

p1.a.breathe()
p1.a.walk()

Directly calling these methods with raise compilation error

//p1.breathe()
//p1.walk()

p1.breathe undefined (type pet1 has no field or method breathe)
p1.walk undefined (type pet1 has no field or method walk)

For an instance of pet2 struct we can call the breathe() and walk() method like directly

p2.breathe()
p2.walk()

We can directly access the methods of embedded interface if the embedded interface is anonymous or unnamed.

Below is also valid and another way fo called methods of unnamed/anonymous embedded interface

p2.animal.breathe()
p2.animal.walk()

Also note that while creating the instance of either the pet1 or pet2 struct, the embedded interface i.e animal is initialised with a type implementing  it i.e dog .

p1 := pet1{name: "Milo", a: d}
p2 := pet2{name: "Oscar", animal: d}

If we don’t initialise the embedded interface animal, then it will be intialised with the zero value of the interface which is nil. Calling breathe() and walk() method  on such an instance of pet1 or pet2 struct will create a panic.