Resource Construction

The gofhir/models library provides three distinct patterns for creating FHIR resources. All three produce the same Go struct types, so you can mix and match patterns within a single project. Choose the one that best fits your coding style and use case.

Overview

Pattern	Best For	Verbosity	Compile-time Safety
Struct Literals	Full control, one-shot initialization	Medium (requires pointers)	Full
Builder Pattern	Step-by-step construction, fluent chains	Low	Full

Both patterns set fields on the same underlying struct (for example, r4.Patient), so serialization and deserialization work identically regardless of how the resource was created.

Quick Comparison

Struct Literal

active := true
patient := r4.Patient{
    Id:           &id,
    Active:       &active,
}

Builder Pattern

patient := r4.NewPatientBuilder().
    SetId("patient-1").
    SetActive(true).
    Build()

Guides

Struct Literals

Direct struct initialization with full control over every field.

Builder Pattern

Fluent chainable API for step-by-step resource construction.

Working with Primitives

FHIR primitive types, pointers, the Decimal type, and extension elements.

Last updated on September 2, 2026