Golang modify json without struct

If someone is not happy with the solution provided:

Try tidwall/sjson. It provides functions for quick JSON editing without having to define any structure. It saved me a bunch of time yesterday :D

Example usage:

value, _ := sjson.Set(`{"name":{"last":"Anderson"}}`, "name.last", "Smith")
println(value)

// Output:
// {"name":{"last":"Smith"}}

Based on this answer: Can I use MarshalJSON to add arbitrary fields to a json encoding in golang?

You could do something like (demo: http://play.golang.org/p/dDiTwxhoNn):

package main

import (
    "encoding/json"
    "fmt"
    "log"
)

type Book struct {
    Title  string
    Author string

    // extra is used for additional dynamic element marshalling
    extra func() interface{}
}

type FakeBook Book

func (b *Book) SetExtra(fn func() interface{}) {
    b.extra = fn
}

func (b *Book) MarshalJSON() ([]byte, error) {
    if b.extra == nil {
        b.extra = func() interface{} { return *b }
    }

    return json.Marshal(b.extra())
}

func main() {
    ms := &Book{
        Title:  "Catch-22",
        Author: "Joseph Heller",
    }

    ms.SetExtra(func() interface{} {
        return struct {
            FakeBook
            Extra1 struct {
                Something string `json:"something"`
            } `json:"extra1"`
        }{
            FakeBook: FakeBook(*ms),
            Extra1: struct {
                Something string `json:"something"`
            }{
                Something: "yy",
            },
        }
    })

    out, err := json.MarshalIndent(ms, "", "  ")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatalln(err)
    }
    fmt.Println(string(out))

    mb := &Book{
        Title:  "Vim-go",
        Author: "Fatih Arslan",
    }

    mb.SetExtra(func() interface{} {
        return struct {
            FakeBook
            Something string `json:"something"`
        }{
            FakeBook:  FakeBook(*mb),
            Something: "xx",
        }
    })

    out, err = json.MarshalIndent(mb, "", "  ")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatalln(err)
    }
    fmt.Println(string(out))

    mc := &Book{
        Title:  "Another-Title",
        Author: "Fatih Arslan",
    }

    out, err = json.MarshalIndent(mc, "", "  ")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatalln(err)
    }
    fmt.Println(string(out))
}