Embedded interfaces

In a slightly more general form an interface T may use a (possibly qualified) interface type name E as an interface element. This is called embedding interface E in T. The type set of T is the intersection of the type sets defined by T’s explicitly declared methods and the type sets of T’s embedded interfaces. In other words, the type set of T is the set of all types that implement all the explicitly declared methods of T and also all the methods of E.

type Reader interface {
	Read(p []byte) (n int, err error)
	Close() error
}

type Writer interface {
	Write(p []byte) (n int, err error)
	Close() error
}

// ReadWriter's methods are Read, Write, and Close.
type ReadWriter interface {
	Reader  // includes methods of Reader in ReadWriter's method set
	Writer  // includes methods of Writer in ReadWriter's method set
}

When embedding interfaces, methods with the same names must have identical signatures.

type ReadCloser interface {
	Reader   // includes methods of Reader in ReadCloser's method set
	Close()  // illegal: signatures of Reader.Close and Close are different
}

Similar to the way structs may have embedded fields, interfaces can be embedded as well. Although there are a couple of key differences:

• The name of the embedded interface has no bearing on the outter interface. With structs, the name of the embedded type becomes an implicit struct field name.
• Methods of the same name must have identical signatures. With structs, the outter-most definition of a field takes precidence over any embedded field of the same name.

Quotes from The Go Programming Language Specification Version of December 15, 2022