[xarope]

working with gRPC allowed me to understand how go(lang)'s use of things like sql.nullstring works (pseudo'ish code}:

  astring = sql.nullstring{isNull=true, value=""}

  if astring.isNull {don't do anything}
  else {process astring.value}

So similarly, gRPC has a method called HasField, so:

  if packet.HasField(astring) {then process packet.astring}

Is it wordy? Yes. Is it elegant? Sadly, No. But does it work? Yes.