Learning Go

Chapter 2. Predeclared Types and Declarations

Now that you have your development environment set up, it’s time to start looking at Go’s language features and how to best use them. When trying to figure out what “best” means, there is one overriding principle: write your programs in a way that makes your intentions clear. As I go through features and discuss the options, I’ll explain why I find that a particular approach produces clearer code.

I’ll start by looking at the types that are built into Go and how to declare variables of those types. While every programmer has experience with these concepts, Go does some things differently, and subtle differences exist between Go and other languages.

The Predeclared Types

Go has many types built into the language. These are called predeclared types. They are similar to types that are found in other languages: booleans, integers, floats, and strings. Using these types idiomatically is sometimes a challenge for developers who are transitioning from another language. You’ll look at these types and see how they work best in Go. Before I review the types, let’s cover some of the concepts that apply to all types.

The Zero Value

Go, like most modern languages, assigns a default zero value to any variable that is declared but not assigned a value. Having an explicit zero value makes code clearer and removes a source of bugs found in C and C++ programs. As I talk about each type, I will also cover the zero value for the type. You can find details ...