How to avoid initialization loop in Go

When I try to compile this code:

package main

import (
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"net/http"
)

func main() {
	fmt.Println("Hello, playground")
}

const (
	GET    = "GET"
	POST   = "POST"
	PUT    = "PUT"
	DELETE = "DELETE"
)

type Route struct {
	Name        string           `json:"name"`
	Method      string           `json:"method"`
	Pattern     string           `json:"pattern"`
	HandlerFunc http.HandlerFunc `json:"-"`
}

type Routes []Route

var routes = Routes{
	Route{
		Name:        "GetRoutes",
		Method:      GET,
		Pattern:     "/routes",
		HandlerFunc: GetRoutes,
	},
}

func GetRoutes(res http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request) {
	if err := json.NewEncoder(res).Encode(routes); err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
}

<kbd>Playground</kbd>

the compiler returns this error message:

main.go:36: initialization loop:
	main.go:36 routes refers to
	main.go:38 GetRoutes refers to
	main.go:36 routes

The goal of this code is to return all the routes of my API in a JSON when a client application executes a GET request on the the /routes route.

Any idea on how can I find a clean workaround to this problem?

Assign the value later within init(). This will let the GetRoutes function be initialized first, then it can be assigned.

type Routes []Route

var routes Routes

func init() {
	routes = Routes{
		Route{
			Name:        "GetRoutes",
			Method:      GET,
			Pattern:     "/routes",
			HandlerFunc: GetRoutes,
		},
	}
}

Use init:

var routes Routes

func init() {
	routes = Routes{
		Route{
			Name:        "GetRoutes",
			Method:      GET,
			Pattern:     "/routes",
			HandlerFunc: GetRoutes,
		},
	}
}