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Version of May 31, 2016

Introduction
Notation
Source code representation
Characters
Letters and digits
Lexical elements
Comments
Tokens
Semicolons
Identifiers
Keywords
Operators and Delimiters
Integer literals
Floating-point literals
Imaginary literals
Rune literals
String literals
Constants
Variables
Types
Method sets
Boolean types
Numeric types
String types
Array types
Slice types
Struct types
Pointer types
Function types
Interface types
Map types
Channel types
Properties of types and values
Type identity
Assignability

Slice expressions
Type assertions
Calls
Passing arguments to ... parameters
Operators
Arithmetic operators
Comparison operators
Logical operators
Address operators
Receive operator
Conversions
Constant expressions
Order of evaluation
Statements
Terminating statements
Empty statements
Labeled statements
Expression statements
Send statements
IncDec statements
Assignments
If statements
Switch statements
For statements
Go statements
Select statements
Return statements
Break statements
Continue statements
Goto statements
Fallthrough statements
Defer statements
Built-in functions
Close
Length and capacity

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Blocks
Declarations and scope
Label scopes
Blank identifier
Predeclared identifiers
Exported identifiers
Uniqueness of identifiers
Constant declarations
Iota
Type declarations
Variable declarations
Short variable declarations
Function declarations
Method declarations
Expressions
Operands
Qualified identifiers
Composite literals
Function literals
Primary expressions
Selectors
Method expressions
Method values
Index expressions

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Allocation
Making slices, maps and channels
Appending to and copying slices
Deletion of map elements
Manipulating complex numbers
Handling panics
Bootstrapping
Packages
Source file organization
Package clause
Import declarations
An example package
Program initialization and execution
The zero value
Package initialization
Program execution
Errors
Run-time panics
System considerations
Package unsafe
Size and alignment guarantees

Introduction
This is a reference manual for the Go programming language. For more information and
other documents, see golang.org.
Go is a general-purpose language designed with systems programming in mind. It is
strongly typed and garbage-collected and has explicit support for concurrent
programming. Programs are constructed from packages, whose properties allow efficient
management of dependencies. The existing implementations use a traditional compile/link
model to generate executable binaries.
The grammar is compact and regular, allowing for easy analysis by automatic tools such
as integrated development environments.

Notation
The syntax is specified using Extended Backus-Naur Form (EBNF):

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Production =
Expression =
Alternative =
Term
=
Repetition .
Group
=
Option
=
Repetition =

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production_name "=" [ Expression ] "." .

Alternative { "|" Alternative } .
Term { Term } .
production_name | token [ "" token ] | Group | Option |
"(" Expression ")" .
"[" Expression "]" .
"{" Expression "}" .

Productions are expressions constructed from terms and the following operators, in
increasing precedence:
|
()
[]
{}

alternation
grouping
option (0 or 1 times)
repetition (0 to n times)

Lower-case production names are used to identify lexical tokens. Non-terminals are in
CamelCase. Lexical tokens are enclosed in double quotes "" or back quotes ``.
The form a b represents the set of characters from a through b as alternatives. The
horizontal ellipsis is also used elsewhere in the spec to informally denote various
enumerations or code snippets that are not further specified. The character (as opposed
to the three characters ...) is not a token of the Go language.

Source code representation

Source code is Unicode text encoded in UTF-8. The text is not canonicalized, so a single
accented code point is distinct from the same character constructed from combining an
accent and a letter; those are treated as two code points. For simplicity, this document will
use the unqualified term character to refer to a Unicode code point in the source text.
Each code point is distinct; for instance, upper and lower case letters are different
characters.
Implementation restriction: For compatibility with other tools, a compiler may disallow the
NUL character (U+0000) in the source text.
Implementation restriction: For compatibility with other tools, a compiler may ignore a
UTF-8-encoded byte order mark (U+FEFF) if it is the first Unicode code point in the source
text. A byte order mark may be disallowed anywhere else in the source.

Characters

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The following terms are used to denote specific Unicode character classes:
newline
unicode_char
unicode_letter
unicode_digit
digit" */ .

=
=
=
=

/*
/*
/*
/*

the Unicode code point U+000A */ .

an arbitrary Unicode code point except newline */ .
a Unicode code point classified as "Letter" */ .
a Unicode code point classified as "Number, decimal

In The Unicode Standard 8.0, Section 4.5 "General Category" defines a set of character
categories. Go treats all characters in any of the Letter categories Lu, Ll, Lt, Lm, or Lo as
Unicode letters, and those in the Number category Nd as Unicode digits.

Letters and digits

The underscore character _ (U+005F) is considered a letter.
letter
decimal_digit
octal_digit
hex_digit

=
=
=
=

unicode_letter | "_" .
"0" "9" .
"0" "7" .
"0" "9" | "A" "F" | "a" "f" .

Lexical elements
Comments
Comments serve as program documentation. There are two forms:
1. Line comments start with the character sequence // and stop at the end of the line.
2. General comments start with the character sequence /* and stop with the first
subsequent character sequence */.
A comment cannot start inside a rune or string literal, or inside a comment. A general
comment containing no newlines acts like a space. Any other comment acts like a
newline.

Tokens
Tokens form the vocabulary of the Go language. There are four classes: identifiers,
keywords, operators and delimiters, and literals. White space, formed from spaces
(U+0020), horizontal tabs (U+0009), carriage returns (U+000D), and newlines (U+000A),
is ignored except as it separates tokens that would otherwise combine into a single token.
Also, a newline or end of file may trigger the insertion of a semicolon. While breaking the
input into tokens, the next token is the longest sequence of characters that form a valid

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token.

Semicolons
The formal grammar uses semicolons ";" as terminators in a number of productions. Go
programs may omit most of these semicolons using the following two rules:
1. When the input is broken into tokens, a semicolon is automatically inserted into the
token stream immediately after a line's final token if that token is
an identifier
an integer, floating-point, imaginary, rune, or string literal
one of the keywords break, continue, fallthrough, or return
one of the operators and delimiters ++, --, ), ], or }
2. To allow complex statements to occupy a single line, a semicolon may be omitted
before a closing ")" or "}".
To reflect idiomatic use, code examples in this document elide semicolons using these
rules.

Identifiers
Identifiers name program entities such as variables and types. An identifier is a sequence
of one or more letters and digits. The first character in an identifier must be a letter.
identifier = letter { letter | unicode_digit } .

a
_x9
ThisVariableIsExported

Some identifiers are predeclared.

Keywords
The following keywords are reserved and may not be used as identifiers.
break
case
chan
const

default
defer
else
fallthrough

func
go
goto
if

interface
map
package
range

select
struct
switch
type

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continue

for

import

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return

var

Operators and Delimiters

The following character sequences represent operators, delimiters, and other special
tokens:
+
*
/
%

&
|
^
<<
>>
&^

+=
-=
*=
/=
%=

&=
|=
^=
<<=
>>=
&^=

&&
||
<++
--

==
<
>
=
!

!=
<=
>=
:=
...

(
[
{
,
.

)
]
}
;
:

Integer literals
An integer literal is a sequence of digits representing an integer constant. An optional
prefix sets a non-decimal base: 0 for octal, 0x or 0X for hexadecimal. In hexadecimal
literals, letters a-f and A-F represent values 10 through 15.
int_lit
decimal_lit
octal_lit
hex_lit

=
=
=
=

decimal_lit | octal_lit | hex_lit .

( "1" "9" ) { decimal_digit } .
"0" { octal_digit } .
"0" ( "x" | "X" ) hex_digit { hex_digit } .

42
0600
0xBadFace
170141183460469231731687303715884105727

Floating-point literals
A floating-point literal is a decimal representation of a floating-point constant. It has an
integer part, a decimal point, a fractional part, and an exponent part. The integer and
fractional part comprise decimal digits; the exponent part is an e or E followed by an
optionally signed decimal exponent. One of the integer part or the fractional part may be
elided; one of the decimal point or the exponent may be elided.
float_lit = decimals "." [ decimals ] [ exponent ] |
decimals exponent |
"." decimals [ exponent ] .
decimals = decimal_digit { decimal_digit } .

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exponent

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= ( "e" | "E" ) [ "+" | "-" ] decimals .

0.
72.40
072.40 // == 72.40
2.71828
1.e+0
6.67428e-11
1E6
.25
.12345E+5

Imaginary literals
An imaginary literal is a decimal representation of the imaginary part of a complex
constant. It consists of a floating-point literal or decimal integer followed by the lower-case
letter i.
imaginary_lit = (decimals | float_lit) "i" .

0i
011i // == 11i
0.i
2.71828i
1.e+0i
6.67428e-11i
1E6i
.25i
.12345E+5i

Rune literals
A rune literal represents a rune constant, an integer value identifying a Unicode code
point. A rune literal is expressed as one or more characters enclosed in single quotes, as
in 'x' or '\n'. Within the quotes, any character may appear except newline and
unescaped single quote. A single quoted character represents the Unicode value of the
character itself, while multi-character sequences beginning with a backslash encode
values in various formats.
The simplest form represents the single character within the quotes; since Go source text
is Unicode characters encoded in UTF-8, multiple UTF-8-encoded bytes may represent a
single integer value. For instance, the literal 'a' holds a single byte representing a literal
a, Unicode U+0061, value 0x61, while '' holds two bytes (0xc3 0xa4) representing a

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literal a-dieresis, U+00E4, value 0xe4.

Several backslash escapes allow arbitrary values to be encoded as ASCII text. There are
four ways to represent the integer value as a numeric constant: \x followed by exactly two
hexadecimal digits; \u followed by exactly four hexadecimal digits; \U followed by exactly
eight hexadecimal digits, and a plain backslash \ followed by exactly three octal digits. In
each case the value of the literal is the value represented by the digits in the
corresponding base.
Although these representations all result in an integer, they have different valid ranges.
Octal escapes must represent a value between 0 and 255 inclusive. Hexadecimal
escapes satisfy this condition by construction. The escapes \u and \U represent Unicode
code points so within them some values are illegal, in particular those above 0x10FFFF
and surrogate halves.
After a backslash, certain single-character escapes represent special values:
\a
\b
\f
\n
\r
\t
\v
\\
\'
\"

U+0007
U+0008
U+000C
U+000A
U+000D
U+0009
U+000b
U+005c
U+0027
U+0022

alert or bell
backspace
form feed
line feed or newline
carriage return
horizontal tab
vertical tab
backslash
single quote (valid escape only within rune literals)
double quote (valid escape only within string literals)

All other sequences starting with a backslash are illegal inside rune literals.
rune_lit
unicode_value
escaped_char .
byte_value
octal_byte_value
hex_byte_value
little_u_value
big_u_value
escaped_char
"'" | `"` ) .

= "'" ( unicode_value | byte_value ) "'" .

= unicode_char | little_u_value | big_u_value |
=
=
=
=
=

octal_byte_value | hex_byte_value .
`\` octal_digit octal_digit octal_digit .
`\` "x" hex_digit hex_digit .
`\` "u" hex_digit hex_digit hex_digit hex_digit .
`\` "U" hex_digit hex_digit hex_digit hex_digit
hex_digit hex_digit hex_digit hex_digit .
= `\` ( "a" | "b" | "f" | "n" | "r" | "t" | "v" | `\` |

'a'
''

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''
'\t'
'\000'
'\007'
'\377'
'\x07'
'\xff'
'\u12e4'
'\U00101234'
'\''
'aa'
'\xa'
'\0'
'\uDFFF'
'\U00110000'

//
//
//
//
//
//

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rune literal containing single quote character

illegal: too many characters
illegal: too few hexadecimal digits
illegal: too few octal digits
illegal: surrogate half
illegal: invalid Unicode code point

String literals
A string literal represents a string constant obtained from concatenating a sequence of
characters. There are two forms: raw string literals and interpreted string literals.
Raw string literals are character sequences between back quotes, as in `foo`. Within the
quotes, any character may appear except back quote. The value of a raw string literal is
the string composed of the uninterpreted (implicitly UTF-8-encoded) characters between
the quotes; in particular, backslashes have no special meaning and the string may contain
newlines. Carriage return characters ('\r') inside raw string literals are discarded from the
raw string value.
Interpreted string literals are character sequences between double quotes, as in "bar".
Within the quotes, any character may appear except newline and unescaped double
quote. The text between the quotes forms the value of the literal, with backslash escapes
interpreted as they are in rune literals (except that \' is illegal and \" is legal), with the
same restrictions. The three-digit octal (\nnn) and two-digit hexadecimal (\xnn) escapes
represent individual bytes of the resulting string; all other escapes represent the (possibly
multi-byte) UTF-8 encoding of individual characters. Thus inside a string literal \377 and
\xFF represent a single byte of value 0xFF=255, while , \u00FF, \U000000FF and
\xc3\xbf represent the two bytes 0xc3 0xbf of the UTF-8 encoding of character U+00FF.
string_lit
= raw_string_lit | interpreted_string_lit .
raw_string_lit
= "`" { unicode_char | newline } "`" .
interpreted_string_lit = `"` { unicode_value | byte_value } `"` .

`abc`
`\n

// same as "abc"

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\n`
"\n"
"\""
"Hello, world!\n"
""
"\u65e5\U00008a9e"
"\xff\u00FF"
"\uD800"
"\U00110000"

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// same as "\\n\n\\n"
// same as `"`

// illegal: surrogate half

// illegal: invalid Unicode code point

These examples all represent the same string:

""
``
literal
"\u65e5\u672c\u8a9e"
points
"\U000065e5\U0000672c\U00008a9e"
points
"\xe6\x97\xa5\xe6\x9c\xac\xe8\xaa\x9e"

// UTF-8 input text

// UTF-8 input text as a raw
// the explicit Unicode code
// the explicit Unicode code
// the explicit UTF-8 bytes

If the source code represents a character as two code points, such as a combining form
involving an accent and a letter, the result will be an error if placed in a rune literal (it is not
a single code point), and will appear as two code points if placed in a string literal.

Constants
There are boolean constants, rune constants, integer constants, floating-point constants,
complex constants, and string constants. Rune, integer, floating-point, and complex
constants are collectively called numeric constants.
A constant value is represented by a rune, integer, floating-point, imaginary, or string
literal, an identifier denoting a constant, a constant expression, a conversion with a result
that is a constant, or the result value of some built-in functions such as unsafe.Sizeof
applied to any value, cap or len applied to some expressions, real and imag applied to a
complex constant and complex applied to numeric constants. The boolean truth values are
represented by the predeclared constants true and false. The predeclared identifier iota
denotes an integer constant.
In general, complex constants are a form of constant expression and are discussed in that
section.
Numeric constants represent exact values of arbitrary precision and do not overflow.
Consequently, there are no constants denoting the IEEE-754 negative zero, infinity, and

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not-a-number values.
Constants may be typed or untyped. Literal constants, true, false, iota, and certain
constant expressions containing only untyped constant operands are untyped.
A constant may be given a type explicitly by a constant declaration or conversion, or
implicitly when used in a variable declaration or an assignment or as an operand in an
expression. It is an error if the constant value cannot be represented as a value of the
respective type. For instance, 3.0 can be given any integer or any floating-point type,
while 2147483648.0 (equal to 1<<31) can be given the types float32, float64, or uint32
but not int32 or string.
An untyped constant has a default type which is the type to which the constant is implicitly
converted in contexts where a typed value is required, for instance, in a short variable
declaration such as i := 0 where there is no explicit type. The default type of an untyped
constant is bool, rune, int, float64, complex128 or string respectively, depending on
whether it is a boolean, rune, integer, floating-point, complex, or string constant.
Implementation restriction: Although numeric constants have arbitrary precision in the
language, a compiler may implement them using an internal representation with limited
precision. That said, every implementation must:
Represent integer constants with at least 256 bits.
Represent floating-point constants, including the parts of a complex constant, with a
mantissa of at least 256 bits and a signed exponent of at least 32 bits.
Give an error if unable to represent an integer constant precisely.
Give an error if unable to represent a floating-point or complex constant due to
overflow.
Round to the nearest representable constant if unable to represent a floating-point or
complex constant due to limits on precision.
These requirements apply both to literal constants and to the result of evaluating constant
expressions.

Variables
A variable is a storage location for holding a value. The set of permissible values is
determined by the variable's type.
A variable declaration or, for function parameters and results, the signature of a function
declaration or function literal reserves storage for a named variable. Calling the built-in
function new or taking the address of a composite literal allocates storage for a variable at
run time. Such an anonymous variable is referred to via a (possibly implicit) pointer
indirection.

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Structured variables of array, slice, and struct types have elements and fields that may be
addressed individually. Each such element acts like a variable.
The static type (or just type) of a variable is the type given in its declaration, the type
provided in the new call or composite literal, or the type of an element of a structured
variable. Variables of interface type also have a distinct dynamic type, which is the
concrete type of the value assigned to the variable at run time (unless the value is the
predeclared identifier nil, which has no type). The dynamic type may vary during
execution but values stored in interface variables are always assignable to the static type
of the variable.
var
var
x =
x =

x interface{}
v *T
42
v

//
//
//
//

x
v
x
x

is nil and has static type interface{}

has value nil, static type *T
has value 42 and dynamic type int
has value (*T)(nil) and dynamic type *T

A variable's value is retrieved by referring to the variable in an expression; it is the most

recent value assigned to the variable. If a variable has not yet been assigned a value, its
value is the zero value for its type.

Types
A type determines the set of values and operations specific to values of that type. Types
may be named or unnamed. Named types are specified by a (possibly qualified) type
name; unnamed types are specified using a type literal, which composes a new type from
existing types.
Type
= TypeName | TypeLit | "(" Type ")" .
TypeName = identifier | QualifiedIdent .
TypeLit
= ArrayType | StructType | PointerType | FunctionType |
InterfaceType |
SliceType | MapType | ChannelType .

Named instances of the boolean, numeric, and string types are predeclared. Composite
typesarray, struct, pointer, function, interface, slice, map, and channel typesmay be
constructed using type literals.
Each type T has an underlying type: If T is one of the predeclared boolean, numeric, or
string types, or a type literal, the corresponding underlying type is T itself. Otherwise, T's
underlying type is the underlying type of the type to which T refers in its type declaration.
type T1 string

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type T2 T1
type T3 []T1
type T4 T3

The underlying type of string, T1, and T2 is string. The underlying type of []T1, T3, and
T4 is []T1.

Method sets
A type may have a method set associated with it. The method set of an interface type is its
interface. The method set of any other type T consists of all methods declared with
receiver type T. The method set of the corresponding pointer type *T is the set of all
methods declared with receiver *T or T (that is, it also contains the method set of T).
Further rules apply to structs containing anonymous fields, as described in the section on
struct types. Any other type has an empty method set. In a method set, each method must
have a unique non-blank method name.
The method set of a type determines the interfaces that the type implements and the
methods that can be called using a receiver of that type.

Boolean types
A boolean type represents the set of Boolean truth values denoted by the predeclared
constants true and false. The predeclared boolean type is bool.

Numeric types
A numeric type represents sets of integer or floating-point values. The predeclared
architecture-independent numeric types are:
uint8
the set of
uint16
the set of
uint32
the set of
uint64
the set of
18446744073709551615)

all
all
all
all

int8
the set of all
int16
the set of all
int32
the set of all
2147483647)
int64
the set of all
to 9223372036854775807)
float32
float64

unsigned 8-bit integers (0

unsigned 16-bit integers (0
unsigned 32-bit integers (0
unsigned 64-bit integers (0

to 255)
to 65535)
to 4294967295)
to

signed 8-bit integers (-128 to 127)

signed 16-bit integers (-32768 to 32767)
signed 32-bit integers (-2147483648 to
signed 64-bit integers (-9223372036854775808

the set of all IEEE-754 32-bit floating-point numbers

the set of all IEEE-754 64-bit floating-point numbers

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complex64
the set of all complex numbers with float32 real and
imaginary parts
complex128 the set of all complex numbers with float64 real and
imaginary parts
byte
rune

alias for uint8

alias for int32

The value of an n-bit integer is n bits wide and represented using two's complement
arithmetic.
There is also a set of predeclared numeric types with implementation-specific sizes:
uint
either 32 or 64 bits
int
same size as uint
uintptr an unsigned integer large enough to store the uninterpreted
bits of a pointer value

To avoid portability issues all numeric types are distinct except byte, which is an alias for
uint8, and rune, which is an alias for int32. Conversions are required when different
numeric types are mixed in an expression or assignment. For instance, int32 and int are
not the same type even though they may have the same size on a particular architecture.

String types
A string type represents the set of string values. A string value is a (possibly empty)
sequence of bytes. Strings are immutable: once created, it is impossible to change the
contents of a string. The predeclared string type is string.
The length of a string s (its size in bytes) can be discovered using the built-in function len.
The length is a compile-time constant if the string is a constant. A string's bytes can be
accessed by integer indices 0 through len(s)-1. It is illegal to take the address of such an
element; if s[i] is the i'th byte of a string, &s[i] is invalid.

Array types
An array is a numbered sequence of elements of a single type, called the element type.
The number of elements is called the length and is never negative.
ArrayType
= "[" ArrayLength "]" ElementType .
ArrayLength = Expression .
ElementType = Type .

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The length is part of the array's type; it must evaluate to a non-negative constant
representable by a value of type int. The length of array a can be discovered using the
built-in function len. The elements can be addressed by integer indices 0 through
len(a)-1. Array types are always one-dimensional but may be composed to form multidimensional types.
[32]byte
[2*N] struct { x, y int32 }
[1000]*float64
[3][5]int
[2][2][2]float64 // same as [2]([2]([2]float64))

Slice types
A slice is a descriptor for a contiguous segment of an underlying array and provides
access to a numbered sequence of elements from that array. A slice type denotes the set
of all slices of arrays of its element type. The value of an uninitialized slice is nil.
SliceType = "[" "]" ElementType .

Like arrays, slices are indexable and have a length. The length of a slice s can be
discovered by the built-in function len; unlike with arrays it may change during execution.
The elements can be addressed by integer indices 0 through len(s)-1. The slice index of
a given element may be less than the index of the same element in the underlying array.
A slice, once initialized, is always associated with an underlying array that holds its
elements. A slice therefore shares storage with its array and with other slices of the same
array; by contrast, distinct arrays always represent distinct storage.
The array underlying a slice may extend past the end of the slice. The capacity is a
measure of that extent: it is the sum of the length of the slice and the length of the array
beyond the slice; a slice of length up to that capacity can be created by slicing a new one
from the original slice. The capacity of a slice a can be discovered using the built-in
function cap(a).
A new, initialized slice value for a given element type T is made using the built-in function
make, which takes a slice type and parameters specifying the length and optionally the
capacity. A slice created with make always allocates a new, hidden array to which the
returned slice value refers. That is, executing
make([]T, length, capacity)

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produces the same slice as allocating an array and slicing it, so these two expressions are
equivalent:
make([]int, 50, 100)
new([100]int)[0:50]

Like arrays, slices are always one-dimensional but may be composed to construct higherdimensional objects. With arrays of arrays, the inner arrays are, by construction, always
the same length; however with slices of slices (or arrays of slices), the inner lengths may
vary dynamically. Moreover, the inner slices must be initialized individually.

Struct types
A struct is a sequence of named elements, called fields, each of which has a name and a
type. Field names may be specified explicitly (IdentifierList) or implicitly (AnonymousField).
Within a struct, non-blank field names must be unique.
StructType
FieldDecl
AnonymousField
Tag

=
=
=
=

"struct" "{" { FieldDecl ";" } "}" .

(IdentifierList Type | AnonymousField) [ Tag ] .
[ "*" ] TypeName .
string_lit .

// An empty struct.
struct {}
// A struct with 6 fields.
struct {
x, y int
u float32
_ float32 // padding
A *[]int
F func()
}

A field declared with a type but no explicit field name is an anonymous field, also called an
embedded field or an embedding of the type in the struct. An embedded type must be
specified as a type name T or as a pointer to a non-interface type name *T, and T itself
may not be a pointer type. The unqualified type name acts as the field name.
// A struct with four anonymous fields of type T1, *T2, P.T3 and *P.T4
struct {
T1
// field name is T1
*T2
// field name is T2

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P.T3
*P.T4
x, y int

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// field name is T3
// field name is T4
// field names are x and y

The following declaration is illegal because field names must be unique in a struct type:
struct {
T
*T
*P.T

// conflicts with anonymous field *T and *P.T

// conflicts with anonymous field T and *P.T
// conflicts with anonymous field T and *T

A field or method f of an anonymous field in a struct x is called promoted if x.f is a legal

selector that denotes that field or method f.
Promoted fields act like ordinary fields of a struct except that they cannot be used as field
names in composite literals of the struct.
Given a struct type S and a type named T, promoted methods are included in the method
set of the struct as follows:
If S contains an anonymous field T, the method sets of S and *S both include
promoted methods with receiver T. The method set of *S also includes promoted
methods with receiver *T.
If S contains an anonymous field *T, the method sets of S and *S both include
promoted methods with receiver T or *T.
A field declaration may be followed by an optional string literal tag, which becomes an
attribute for all the fields in the corresponding field declaration. An empty tag string is
equivalent to an absent tag. The tags are made visible through a reflection interface and
take part in type identity for structs but are otherwise ignored.
struct {
x, y float64 "" // an empty tag string is like an absent tag
name string "any string is permitted as a tag"
_
[4]byte "ceci n'est pas un champ de structure"
}
// A struct corresponding to a TimeStamp protocol buffer.
// The tag strings define the protocol buffer field numbers;
// they follow the convention outlined by the reflect package.
struct {
microsec uint64 `protobuf:"1"`

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serverIP6 uint64 `protobuf:"2"`

}

Pointer types
A pointer type denotes the set of all pointers to variables of a given type, called the base
type of the pointer. The value of an uninitialized pointer is nil.
PointerType = "*" BaseType .
BaseType
= Type .

*Point
*[4]int

Function types
A function type denotes the set of all functions with the same parameter and result types.
The value of an uninitialized variable of function type is nil.
FunctionType
Signature
Result
Parameters
ParameterList
ParameterDecl

=
=
=
=
=
=

"func" Signature .
Parameters [ Result ] .
Parameters | Type .
"(" [ ParameterList [ "," ] ] ")" .
ParameterDecl { "," ParameterDecl } .
[ IdentifierList ] [ "..." ] Type .

Within a list of parameters or results, the names (IdentifierList) must either all be present
or all be absent. If present, each name stands for one item (parameter or result) of the
specified type and all non-blank names in the signature must be unique. If absent, each
type stands for one item of that type. Parameter and result lists are always parenthesized
except that if there is exactly one unnamed result it may be written as an unparenthesized
type.
The final incoming parameter in a function signature may have a type prefixed with .... A
function with such a parameter is called variadic and may be invoked with zero or more
arguments for that parameter.
func()
func(x int) int
func(a, _ int, z float32) bool
func(a, b int, z float32) (bool)
func(prefix string, values ...int)

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func(a, b int, z float64, opt ...interface{}) (success bool)

func(int, int, float64) (float64, *[]int)
func(n int) func(p *T)

Interface types
An interface type specifies a method set called its interface. A variable of interface type
can store a value of any type with a method set that is any superset of the interface. Such
a type is said to implement the interface. The value of an uninitialized variable of interface
type is nil.
InterfaceType
MethodSpec
MethodName
InterfaceTypeName

=
=
=
=

"interface" "{" { MethodSpec ";" } "}" .

MethodName Signature | InterfaceTypeName .
identifier .
TypeName .

As with all method sets, in an interface type, each method must have a unique non-blank
name.
// A simple File interface
interface {
Read(b Buffer) bool
Write(b Buffer) bool
Close()
}

More than one type may implement an interface. For instance, if two types S1 and S2 have
the method set
func (p T) Read(b Buffer) bool { return }
func (p T) Write(b Buffer) bool { return }
func (p T) Close() { }

(where T stands for either S1 or S2) then the File interface is implemented by both S1 and
S2, regardless of what other methods S1 and S2 may have or share.
A type implements any interface comprising any subset of its methods and may therefore
implement several distinct interfaces. For instance, all types implement the empty
interface:
interface{}

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Similarly, consider this interface specification, which appears within a type declaration to
define an interface called Locker:
type Locker interface {
Lock()
Unlock()
}

If S1 and S2 also implement

func (p T) Lock() { }
func (p T) Unlock() { }

they implement the Locker interface as well as the File interface.

An interface T may use a (possibly qualified) interface type name E in place of a method
specification. This is called embedding interface E in T; it adds all (exported and
non-exported) methods of E to the interface T.
type ReadWriter interface {
Read(b Buffer) bool
Write(b Buffer) bool
}
type File interface {
ReadWriter // same as adding the methods of ReadWriter
Locker
// same as adding the methods of Locker
Close()
}
type LockedFile interface {
Locker
File
// illegal: Lock, Unlock not unique
Lock()
// illegal: Lock not unique
}

An interface type T may not embed itself or any interface type that embeds T, recursively.
// illegal: Bad cannot embed itself
type Bad interface {
Bad
}

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// illegal: Bad1 cannot embed itself using Bad2

type Bad1 interface {
Bad2
}
type Bad2 interface {
Bad1
}

Map types
A map is an unordered group of elements of one type, called the element type, indexed by
a set of unique keys of another type, called the key type. The value of an uninitialized map
is nil.
MapType
KeyType

= "map" "[" KeyType "]" ElementType .

= Type .

The comparison operators == and != must be fully defined for operands of the key type;
thus the key type must not be a function, map, or slice. If the key type is an interface type,
these comparison operators must be defined for the dynamic key values; failure will cause
a run-time panic.
map[string]int
map[*T]struct{ x, y float64 }
map[string]interface{}

The number of map elements is called its length. For a map m, it can be discovered using
the built-in function len and may change during execution. Elements may be added during
execution using assignments and retrieved with index expressions; they may be removed
with the delete built-in function.
A new, empty map value is made using the built-in function make, which takes the map
type and an optional capacity hint as arguments:
make(map[string]int)
make(map[string]int, 100)

The initial capacity does not bound its size: maps grow to accommodate the number of
items stored in them, with the exception of nil maps. A nil map is equivalent to an empty
map except that no elements may be added.

Channel types

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A channel provides a mechanism for concurrently executing functions to communicate by

sending and receiving values of a specified element type. The value of an uninitialized
channel is nil.
ChannelType = ( "chan" | "chan" "<-" | "<-" "chan" ) ElementType .

The optional <- operator specifies the channel direction, send or receive. If no direction is
given, the channel is bidirectional. A channel may be constrained only to send or only to
receive by conversion or assignment.
chan T
chan<- float64
<-chan int

// can be used to send and receive values of type T

// can only be used to send float64s
// can only be used to receive ints

The <- operator associates with the leftmost chan possible:

chan<- chan int
chan<- <-chan int
<-chan <-chan int
chan (<-chan int)

// same as chan<- (chan int)

// same as chan<- (<-chan int)
// same as <-chan (<-chan int)

A new, initialized channel value can be made using the built-in function make, which takes
the channel type and an optional capacity as arguments:
make(chan int, 100)

The capacity, in number of elements, sets the size of the buffer in the channel. If the
capacity is zero or absent, the channel is unbuffered and communication succeeds only
when both a sender and receiver are ready. Otherwise, the channel is buffered and
communication succeeds without blocking if the buffer is not full (sends) or not empty
(receives). A nil channel is never ready for communication.
A channel may be closed with the built-in function close. The multi-valued assignment
form of the receive operator reports whether a received value was sent before the channel
was closed.
A single channel may be used in send statements, receive operations, and calls to the
built-in functions cap and len by any number of goroutines without further synchronization.
Channels act as first-in-first-out queues. For example, if one goroutine sends values on a
channel and a second goroutine receives them, the values are received in the order sent.

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Properties of types and values

Type identity
Two types are either identical or different.
Two named types are identical if their type names originate in the same TypeSpec. A
named and an unnamed type are always different. Two unnamed types are identical if the
corresponding type literals are identical, that is, if they have the same literal structure and
corresponding components have identical types. In detail:
Two array types are identical if they have identical element types and the same array
length.
Two slice types are identical if they have identical element types.
Two struct types are identical if they have the same sequence of fields, and if
corresponding fields have the same names, and identical types, and identical tags.
Two anonymous fields are considered to have the same name. Lower-case field
names from different packages are always different.
Two pointer types are identical if they have identical base types.
Two function types are identical if they have the same number of parameters and
result values, corresponding parameter and result types are identical, and either
both functions are variadic or neither is. Parameter and result names are not
required to match.
Two interface types are identical if they have the same set of methods with the same
names and identical function types. Lower-case method names from different
packages are always different. The order of the methods is irrelevant.
Two map types are identical if they have identical key and value types.
Two channel types are identical if they have identical value types and the same
direction.
Given the declarations
type (
T0
T1
T2
T3
T4
T5

[]string
[]string
struct{ a, b int }
struct{ a, c int }
func(int, float64) *T0
func(x int, y float64) *[]string

these types are identical:

T0 and T0

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[]int and []int

struct{ a, b *T5 } and struct{ a, b *T5 }
func(x int, y float64) *[]string and func(int, float64) (result
*[]string)

T0 and T1 are different because they are named types with distinct declarations;
func(int, float64) *T0 and func(x int, y float64) *[]string are different

because T0 is different from []string.

Assignability
A value x is assignable to a variable of type T ("x is assignable to T") in any of these
cases:
x's type is identical to T.
x's type V and T have identical underlying types and at least one of V or T is not a

named type.
T is an interface type and x implements T.
x is a bidirectional channel value, T is a channel type, x's type V and T have identical
element types, and at least one of V or T is not a named type.
x is the predeclared identifier nil and T is a pointer, function, slice, map, channel, or
interface type.
x is an untyped constant representable by a value of type T.

Blocks
A block is a possibly empty sequence of declarations and statements within matching
brace brackets.
Block = "{" StatementList "}" .
StatementList = { Statement ";" } .

In addition to explicit blocks in the source code, there are implicit blocks:
1. The universe block encompasses all Go source text.
2. Each package has a package block containing all Go source text for that package.
3. Each file has a file block containing all Go source text in that file.
4. Each "if", "for", and "switch" statement is considered to be in its own implicit block.
5. Each clause in a "switch" or "select" statement acts as an implicit block.
Blocks nest and influence scoping.

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Declarations and scope

A declaration binds a non-blank identifier to a constant, type, variable, function, label, or
package. Every identifier in a program must be declared. No identifier may be declared
twice in the same block, and no identifier may be declared in both the file and package
block.
The blank identifier may be used like any other identifier in a declaration, but it does not
introduce a binding and thus is not declared. In the package block, the identifier init may
only be used for init function declarations, and like the blank identifier it does not
introduce a new binding.
Declaration
TopLevelDecl

= ConstDecl | TypeDecl | VarDecl .

= Declaration | FunctionDecl | MethodDecl .

The scope of a declared identifier is the extent of source text in which the identifier
denotes the specified constant, type, variable, function, label, or package.
Go is lexically scoped using blocks:
1. The scope of a predeclared identifier is the universe block.
2. The scope of an identifier denoting a constant, type, variable, or function (but not
method) declared at top level (outside any function) is the package block.
3. The scope of the package name of an imported package is the file block of the file
containing the import declaration.
4. The scope of an identifier denoting a method receiver, function parameter, or result
variable is the function body.
5. The scope of a constant or variable identifier declared inside a function begins at the
end of the ConstSpec or VarSpec (ShortVarDecl for short variable declarations) and
ends at the end of the innermost containing block.
6. The scope of a type identifier declared inside a function begins at the identifier in the
TypeSpec and ends at the end of the innermost containing block.
An identifier declared in a block may be redeclared in an inner block. While the identifier of
the inner declaration is in scope, it denotes the entity declared by the inner declaration.
The package clause is not a declaration; the package name does not appear in any
scope. Its purpose is to identify the files belonging to the same package and to specify the
default package name for import declarations.

Label scopes
Labels are declared by labeled statements and are used in the "break", "continue", and
"goto" statements. It is illegal to define a label that is never used. In contrast to other

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identifiers, labels are not block scoped and do not conflict with identifiers that are not
labels. The scope of a label is the body of the function in which it is declared and excludes
the body of any nested function.

Blank identifier
The blank identifier is represented by the underscore character _. It serves as an
anonymous placeholder instead of a regular (non-blank) identifier and has special
meaning in declarations, as an operand, and in assignments.

Predeclared identifiers
The following identifiers are implicitly declared in the universe block:
Types:
bool byte complex64 complex128 error float32 float64
int int8 int16 int32 int64 rune string
uint uint8 uint16 uint32 uint64 uintptr
Constants:
true false iota
Zero value:
nil
Functions:
append cap close complex copy delete imag len
make new panic print println real recover

Exported identifiers
An identifier may be exported to permit access to it from another package. An identifier is
exported if both:
1. the first character of the identifier's name is a Unicode upper case letter (Unicode
class "Lu"); and
2. the identifier is declared in the package block or it is a field name or method name.
All other identifiers are not exported.

Uniqueness of identifiers
Given a set of identifiers, an identifier is called unique if it is different from every other in
the set. Two identifiers are different if they are spelled differently, or if they appear in
different packages and are not exported. Otherwise, they are the same.

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Constant declarations
A constant declaration binds a list of identifiers (the names of the constants) to the values
of a list of constant expressions. The number of identifiers must be equal to the number of
expressions, and the nth identifier on the left is bound to the value of the nth expression
on the right.
ConstDecl
ConstSpec

= "const" ( ConstSpec | "(" { ConstSpec ";" } ")" ) .

= IdentifierList [ [ Type ] "=" ExpressionList ] .

IdentifierList = identifier { "," identifier } .

ExpressionList = Expression { "," Expression } .

If the type is present, all constants take the type specified, and the expressions must be
assignable to that type. If the type is omitted, the constants take the individual types of the
corresponding expressions. If the expression values are untyped constants, the declared
constants remain untyped and the constant identifiers denote the constant values. For
instance, if the expression is a floating-point literal, the constant identifier denotes a
floating-point constant, even if the literal's fractional part is zero.
const Pi float64 = 3.14159265358979323846
const zero = 0.0
// untyped floating-point constant
const (
size int64 = 1024
eof
= -1 // untyped integer constant
)
const a, b, c = 3, 4, "foo" // a = 3, b = 4, c = "foo", untyped integer
and string constants
const u, v float32 = 0, 3
// u = 0.0, v = 3.0

Within a parenthesized const declaration list the expression list may be omitted from any
but the first declaration. Such an empty list is equivalent to the textual substitution of the
first preceding non-empty expression list and its type if any. Omitting the list of
expressions is therefore equivalent to repeating the previous list. The number of identifiers
must be equal to the number of expressions in the previous list. Together with the iota
constant generator this mechanism permits light-weight declaration of sequential values:
const (
Sunday = iota
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday

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// this constant is not exported

Iota
Within a constant declaration, the predeclared identifier iota represents successive
untyped integer constants. It is reset to 0 whenever the reserved word const appears in
the source and increments after each ConstSpec. It can be used to construct a set of
related constants:
const ( //
c0
c1
c2
)

iota is
= iota
= iota
= iota

reset
// c0
// c1
// c2

to
==
==
==

const ( // iota is reset to

a = 1 << iota // a
b = 1 << iota // b
c = 3
// c
incremented)
d = 1 << iota // d
)
const ( // iota is reset
u
= iota
v float64 = iota
w
= iota
)
const x = iota
const y = iota

0
0
1
2

0
== 1
== 2
== 3
== 8

to 0
* 42
* 42
* 42

// x == 0
// y == 0

(iota is not used but still

// u == 0
// v == 42.0
// w == 84

(untyped integer constant)

(float64 constant)
(untyped integer constant)

(iota has been reset)

(iota has been reset)

Within an ExpressionList, the value of each iota is the same because it is only
incremented after each ConstSpec:
const (
bit0, mask0 = 1 << iota, 1<<iota - 1
bit1, mask1
_, _
bit3, mask3

//
//
//
//

bit0 == 1,
bit1 == 2,
skips iota
bit3 == 8,

mask0 == 0
mask1 == 1
== 2
mask3 == 7

This last example exploits the implicit repetition of the last non-empty expression list.

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Type declarations
A type declaration binds an identifier, the type name, to a new type that has the same
underlying type as an existing type, and operations defined for the existing type are also
defined for the new type. The new type is different from the existing type.
TypeDecl
TypeSpec

= "type" ( TypeSpec | "(" { TypeSpec ";" } ")" ) .

= identifier Type .

type IntArray [16]int

type (
Point struct{ x, y float64 }
Polar Point
)
type TreeNode struct {
left, right *TreeNode
value *Comparable
}
type Block interface {
BlockSize() int
Encrypt(src, dst []byte)
Decrypt(src, dst []byte)
}

The declared type does not inherit any methods bound to the existing type, but the
method set of an interface type or of elements of a composite type remains unchanged:
// A
type
func
func

Mutex is a data type

Mutex struct
(m *Mutex) Lock()
(m *Mutex) Unlock()

with
{ /*
{ /*
{ /*

two methods, Lock and Unlock.

Mutex fields */ }
Lock implementation */ }
Unlock implementation */ }

// NewMutex has the same composition as Mutex but its method set is
empty.
type NewMutex Mutex
// The method set of the base type of PtrMutex remains unchanged,
// but the method set of PtrMutex is empty.
type PtrMutex *Mutex
// The method set of *PrintableMutex contains the methods
// Lock and Unlock bound to its anonymous field Mutex.

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type PrintableMutex struct {

Mutex
}
// MyBlock is an interface type that has the same method set as Block.
type MyBlock Block

A type declaration may be used to define a different boolean, numeric, or string type and
attach methods to it:
type TimeZone int
const (
EST TimeZone = -(5 + iota)
CST
MST
PST
)
func (tz TimeZone) String() string {
return fmt.Sprintf("GMT%+dh", tz)
}

Variable declarations
A variable declaration creates one or more variables, binds corresponding identifiers to
them, and gives each a type and an initial value.
VarDecl
= "var" ( VarSpec | "(" { VarSpec ";" } ")" ) .
VarSpec
= IdentifierList ( Type [ "=" ExpressionList ] | "="
ExpressionList ) .

var
var
var
var
var

i int
U, V, W float64
k = 0
x, y float32 = -1, -2
(
i
int
u, v, s = 2.0, 3.0, "bar"

)
var re, im = complexSqrt(-1)
var _, found = entries[name]

// map lookup; only interested in "found"

If a list of expressions is given, the variables are initialized with the expressions following

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the rules for assignments. Otherwise, each variable is initialized to its zero value.
If a type is present, each variable is given that type. Otherwise, each variable is given the
type of the corresponding initialization value in the assignment. If that value is an untyped
constant, it is first converted to its default type; if it is an untyped boolean value, it is first
converted to type bool. The predeclared value nil cannot be used to initialize a variable
with no explicit type.
var
var
var
var

d = math.Sin(0.5)
i = 42
t, ok = x.(T)
n = nil

//
//
//
//

d is float64
i is int
t is T, ok is bool
illegal

Implementation restriction: A compiler may make it illegal to declare a variable inside a

function body if the variable is never used.

Short variable declarations

A short variable declaration uses the syntax:
ShortVarDecl = IdentifierList ":=" ExpressionList .

It is shorthand for a regular variable declaration with initializer expressions but no types:
"var" IdentifierList = ExpressionList .

i, j := 0, 10
f := func() int { return 7 }
ch := make(chan int)
r, w := os.Pipe(fd) // os.Pipe() returns two values
_, y, _ := coord(p) // coord() returns three values; only interested in
y coordinate

Unlike regular variable declarations, a short variable declaration may redeclare variables
provided they were originally declared earlier in the same block (or the parameter lists if
the block is the function body) with the same type, and at least one of the non-blank
variables is new. As a consequence, redeclaration can only appear in a multi-variable
short declaration. Redeclaration does not introduce a new variable; it just assigns a new
value to the original.
field1, offset := nextField(str, 0)
field2, offset := nextField(str, offset)

// redeclares offset

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a, a := 1, 2
// illegal: double declaration
of a or no new variable if a was declared elsewhere

Short variable declarations may appear only inside functions. In some contexts such as
the initializers for "if", "for", or "switch" statements, they can be used to declare local
temporary variables.

Function declarations
A function declaration binds an identifier, the function name, to a function.
FunctionDecl
FunctionName
Function
FunctionBody

=
=
=
=

"func" FunctionName ( Function | Signature ) .

identifier .
Signature FunctionBody .
Block .

If the function's signature declares result parameters, the function body's statement list
must end in a terminating statement.
func IndexRune(s string, r rune) int {
for i, c := range s {
if c == r {
return i
}
}
// invalid: missing return statement
}

A function declaration may omit the body. Such a declaration provides the signature for a
function implemented outside Go, such as an assembly routine.
func min(x int, y int) int {
if x < y {
return x
}
return y
}
func flushICache(begin, end uintptr)

// implemented externally

Method declarations
A method is a function with a receiver. A method declaration binds an identifier, the
method name, to a method, and associates the method with the receiver's base type.

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MethodDecl
Receiver

https://golang.org/ref/spec

= "func" Receiver MethodName ( Function | Signature ) .

= Parameters .

The receiver is specified via an extra parameter section preceding the method name. That
parameter section must declare a single non-variadic parameter, the receiver. Its type
must be of the form T or *T (possibly using parentheses) where T is a type name. The type
denoted by T is called the receiver base type; it must not be a pointer or interface type and
it must be declared in the same package as the method. The method is said to be bound
to the base type and the method name is visible only within selectors for type T or *T.
A non-blank receiver identifier must be unique in the method signature. If the receiver's
value is not referenced inside the body of the method, its identifier may be omitted in the
declaration. The same applies in general to parameters of functions and methods.
For a base type, the non-blank names of methods bound to it must be unique. If the base
type is a struct type, the non-blank method and field names must be distinct.
Given type Point, the declarations
func (p *Point) Length() float64 {
return math.Sqrt(p.x * p.x + p.y * p.y)
}
func (p *Point) Scale(factor float64) {
p.x *= factor
p.y *= factor
}

bind the methods Length and Scale, with receiver type *Point, to the base type Point.
The type of a method is the type of a function with the receiver as first argument. For
instance, the method Scale has type
func(p *Point, factor float64)

However, a function declared this way is not a method.

Expressions
An expression specifies the computation of a value by applying operators and functions to
operands.

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Operands
Operands denote the elementary values in an expression. An operand may be a literal, a
(possibly qualified) non-blank identifier denoting a constant, variable, or function, a
method expression yielding a function, or a parenthesized expression.
The blank identifier may appear as an operand only on the left-hand side of an
assignment.
Operand
=
Literal
=
BasicLit
=
string_lit .
OperandName =

Literal | OperandName | MethodExpr | "(" Expression ")" .

BasicLit | CompositeLit | FunctionLit .
int_lit | float_lit | imaginary_lit | rune_lit |
identifier | QualifiedIdent.

Qualified identifiers
A qualified identifier is an identifier qualified with a package name prefix. Both the package
name and the identifier must not be blank.
QualifiedIdent = PackageName "." identifier .

A qualified identifier accesses an identifier in a different package, which must be imported.

The identifier must be exported and declared in the package block of that package.
math.Sin

// denotes the Sin function in package math

Composite literals
Composite literals construct values for structs, arrays, slices, and maps and create a new
value each time they are evaluated. They consist of the type of the literal followed by a
brace-bound list of elements. Each element may optionally be preceded by a
corresponding key.
CompositeLit
LiteralType
LiteralValue
ElementList
KeyedElement
Key
FieldName
Element

= LiteralType LiteralValue .
= StructType | ArrayType | "[" "..." "]" ElementType |
SliceType | MapType | TypeName .
= "{" [ ElementList [ "," ] ] "}" .
= KeyedElement { "," KeyedElement } .
= [ Key ":" ] Element .
= FieldName | Expression | LiteralValue .
= identifier .
= Expression | LiteralValue .

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The LiteralType's underlying type must be a struct, array, slice, or map type (the grammar
enforces this constraint except when the type is given as a TypeName). The types of the
elements and keys must be assignable to the respective field, element, and key types of
the literal type; there is no additional conversion. The key is interpreted as a field name for
struct literals, an index for array and slice literals, and a key for map literals. For map
literals, all elements must have a key. It is an error to specify multiple elements with the
same field name or constant key value.
For struct literals the following rules apply:
A key must be a field name declared in the struct type.
An element list that does not contain any keys must list an element for each struct
field in the order in which the fields are declared.
If any element has a key, every element must have a key.
An element list that contains keys does not need to have an element for each struct
field. Omitted fields get the zero value for that field.
A literal may omit the element list; such a literal evaluates to the zero value for its
type.
It is an error to specify an element for a non-exported field of a struct belonging to a
different package.
Given the declarations
type Point3D struct { x, y, z float64 }
type Line struct { p, q Point3D }

one may write

origin := Point3D{}
line := Line{origin, Point3D{y: -4, z: 12.3}}

// zero value for Point3D

// zero value for line.q.x

For array and slice literals the following rules apply:

Each element has an associated integer index marking its position in the array.
An element with a key uses the key as its index; the key must be a constant integer
expression.
An element without a key uses the previous element's index plus one. If the first
element has no key, its index is zero.
Taking the address of a composite literal generates a pointer to a unique variable
initialized with the literal's value.
var pointer *Point3D = &Point3D{y: 1000}

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The length of an array literal is the length specified in the literal type. If fewer elements
than the length are provided in the literal, the missing elements are set to the zero value
for the array element type. It is an error to provide elements with index values outside the
index range of the array. The notation ... specifies an array length equal to the maximum
element index plus one.
buffer := [10]string{}
intSet := [6]int{1, 2, 3, 5}
days := [...]string{"Sat", "Sun"}

// len(buffer) == 10
// len(intSet) == 6
// len(days) == 2

A slice literal describes the entire underlying array literal. Thus, the length and capacity of
a slice literal are the maximum element index plus one. A slice literal has the form
[]T{x1, x2, xn}

and is shorthand for a slice operation applied to an array:

tmp := [n]T{x1, x2, xn}
tmp[0 : n]

Within a composite literal of array, slice, or map type T, elements or map keys that are
themselves composite literals may elide the respective literal type if it is identical to the
element or key type of T. Similarly, elements or keys that are addresses of composite
literals may elide the &T when the element or key type is *T.
[...]Point{{1.5, -3.5}, {0, 0}}
// same as [...]Point{Point{1.5,
-3.5}, Point{0, 0}}
[][]int{{1, 2, 3}, {4, 5}}
// same as [][]int{[]int{1, 2, 3},
[]int{4, 5}}
[][]Point{{{0, 1}, {1, 2}}}
// same as
[][]Point{[]Point{Point{0, 1}, Point{1, 2}}}
map[string]Point{"orig": {0, 0}}
// same as map[string]Point{"orig":
Point{0, 0}}
[...]*Point{{1.5, -3.5}, {0, 0}}
-3.5}, &Point{0, 0}}

// same as [...]*Point{&Point{1.5,

map[Point]string{{0, 0}: "orig"}

0}: "orig"}

// same as map[Point]string{Point{0,

A parsing ambiguity arises when a composite literal using the TypeName form of the
LiteralType appears as an operand between the keyword and the opening brace of the
block of an "if", "for", or "switch" statement, and the composite literal is not enclosed in

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parentheses, square brackets, or curly braces. In this rare case, the opening brace of the
literal is erroneously parsed as the one introducing the block of statements. To resolve the
ambiguity, the composite literal must appear within parentheses.
if x == (T{a,b,c}[i]) { }
if (x == T{a,b,c}[i]) { }

Examples of valid array, slice, and map literals:

// list of prime numbers
primes := []int{2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 2147483647}
// vowels[ch] is true if ch is a vowel
vowels := [128]bool{'a': true, 'e': true, 'i': true, 'o': true, 'u':
true, 'y': true}
// the array [10]float32{-1, 0, 0, 0, -0.1, -0.1, 0, 0, 0, -1}
filter := [10]float32{-1, 4: -0.1, -0.1, 9: -1}
// frequencies in Hz for equal-tempered scale (A4 = 440Hz)
noteFrequency := map[string]float32{
"C0": 16.35, "D0": 18.35, "E0": 20.60, "F0": 21.83,
"G0": 24.50, "A0": 27.50, "B0": 30.87,
}

Function literals
A function literal represents an anonymous function.
FunctionLit = "func" Function .

func(a, b int, z float64) bool { return a*b < int(z) }

A function literal can be assigned to a variable or invoked directly.

f := func(x, y int) int { return x + y }
func(ch chan int) { ch <- ACK }(replyChan)

Function literals are closures: they may refer to variables defined in a surrounding
function. Those variables are then shared between the surrounding function and the
function literal, and they survive as long as they are accessible.

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Primary expressions
Primary expressions are the operands for unary and binary expressions.
PrimaryExpr =
Operand |
Conversion |
PrimaryExpr Selector |
PrimaryExpr Index |
PrimaryExpr Slice |
PrimaryExpr TypeAssertion |
PrimaryExpr Arguments .
Selector
Index
Slice

= "." identifier .
= "[" Expression "]" .
= "[" [ Expression ] ":" [ Expression ] "]" |
"[" [ Expression ] ":" Expression ":" Expression "]" .
TypeAssertion = "." "(" Type ")" .
Arguments
= "(" [ ( ExpressionList | Type [ "," ExpressionList ] )
[ "..." ] [ "," ] ] ")" .

x
2
(s + ".txt")
f(3.1415, true)
Point{1, 2}
m["foo"]
s[i : j + 1]
obj.color
f.p[i].x()

Selectors
For a primary expression x that is not a package name, the selector expression
x.f

denotes the field or method f of the value x (or sometimes *x; see below). The identifier f
is called the (field or method) selector; it must not be the blank identifier. The type of the
selector expression is the type of f. If x is a package name, see the section on qualified
identifiers.
A selector f may denote a field or method f of a type T, or it may refer to a field or method
f of a nested anonymous field of T. The number of anonymous fields traversed to reach f

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is called its depth in T. The depth of a field or method f declared in T is zero. The depth of
a field or method f declared in an anonymous field A in T is the depth of f in A plus one.
The following rules apply to selectors:
1. For a value x of type T or *T where T is not a pointer or interface type, x.f denotes
the field or method at the shallowest depth in T where there is such an f. If there is
not exactly one f with shallowest depth, the selector expression is illegal.
2. For a value x of type I where I is an interface type, x.f denotes the actual method
with name f of the dynamic value of x. If there is no method with name f in the
method set of I, the selector expression is illegal.
3. As an exception, if the type of x is a named pointer type and (*x).f is a valid
selector expression denoting a field (but not a method), x.f is shorthand for (*x).f.
4. In all other cases, x.f is illegal.
5. If x is of pointer type and has the value nil and x.f denotes a struct field, assigning
to or evaluating x.f causes a run-time panic.
6. If x is of interface type and has the value nil, calling or evaluating the method x.f
causes a run-time panic.
For example, given the declarations:
type T0 struct {
x int
}
func (*T0) M0()
type T1 struct {
y int
}
func (T1) M1()
type T2 struct {
z int
T1
*T0
}
func (*T2) M2()
type Q *T2
var t T2
var p *T2

// with t.T0 != nil

// with p != nil and (*p).T0 != nil

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var q Q = p

one may write:

t.z
t.y
t.x

// t.z
// t.T1.y
// (*t.T0).x

p.z
p.y
p.x

// (*p).z
// (*p).T1.y
// (*(*p).T0).x

q.x

// (*(*q).T0).x

(*q).x is a valid field selector

p.M0()
p.M1()
p.M2()
t.M2()
on Calls

//
//
//
//

M0
M1
M2
M2

((*p).T0).M0()
((*p).T1).M1()
p.M2()
(&t).M2()

expects
expects
expects
expects

*T0 receiver
T1 receiver
*T2 receiver
*T2 receiver, see section

but the following is invalid:

q.M0()

// (*q).M0 is valid but not a field selector

Method expressions
If M is in the method set of type T, T.M is a function that is callable as a regular function
with the same arguments as M prefixed by an additional argument that is the receiver of
the method.
MethodExpr
ReceiverType

= ReceiverType "." MethodName .

= TypeName | "(" "*" TypeName ")" | "(" ReceiverType ")" .

Consider a struct type T with two methods, Mv, whose receiver is of type T, and Mp, whose
receiver is of type *T.
type T struct {
a int
}
func (tv T) Mv(a int) int
{ return 0 }
func (tp *T) Mp(f float32) float32 { return 1 }

// value receiver
// pointer receiver

var t T

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The expression
T.Mv

yields a function equivalent to Mv but with an explicit receiver as its first argument; it has
signature
func(tv T, a int) int

That function may be called normally with an explicit receiver, so these five invocations
are equivalent:
t.Mv(7)
T.Mv(t, 7)
(T).Mv(t, 7)
f1 := T.Mv; f1(t, 7)
f2 := (T).Mv; f2(t, 7)

Similarly, the expression

(*T).Mp

yields a function value representing Mp with signature

func(tp *T, f float32) float32

For a method with a value receiver, one can derive a function with an explicit pointer
receiver, so
(*T).Mv

yields a function value representing Mv with signature

func(tv *T, a int) int

Such a function indirects through the receiver to create a value to pass as the receiver to
the underlying method; the method does not overwrite the value whose address is passed
in the function call.

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The final case, a value-receiver function for a pointer-receiver method, is illegal because
pointer-receiver methods are not in the method set of the value type.
Function values derived from methods are called with function call syntax; the receiver is
provided as the first argument to the call. That is, given f := T.Mv, f is invoked as f(t,
7) not t.f(7). To construct a function that binds the receiver, use a function literal or
method value.
It is legal to derive a function value from a method of an interface type. The resulting
function takes an explicit receiver of that interface type.

Method values
If the expression x has static type T and M is in the method set of type T, x.M is called a
method value. The method value x.M is a function value that is callable with the same
arguments as a method call of x.M. The expression x is evaluated and saved during the
evaluation of the method value; the saved copy is then used as the receiver in any calls,
which may be executed later.
The type T may be an interface or non-interface type.
As in the discussion of method expressions above, consider a struct type T with two
methods, Mv, whose receiver is of type T, and Mp, whose receiver is of type *T.
type T struct {
a int
}
func (tv T) Mv(a int) int
{ return 0 }
func (tp *T) Mp(f float32) float32 { return 1 }

// value receiver
// pointer receiver

var t T
var pt *T
func makeT() T

The expression
t.Mv

yields a function value of type

func(int) int

These two invocations are equivalent:

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t.Mv(7)
f := t.Mv; f(7)

Similarly, the expression

pt.Mp

yields a function value of type

func(float32) float32

As with selectors, a reference to a non-interface method with a value receiver using a

pointer will automatically dereference that pointer: pt.Mv is equivalent to (*pt).Mv.
As with method calls, a reference to a non-interface method with a pointer receiver using
an addressable value will automatically take the address of that value: t.Mp is equivalent
to (&t).Mp.
f
f
f
f
f

:=
:=
:=
:=
:=

t.Mv; f(7)
pt.Mp; f(7)
pt.Mv; f(7)
t.Mp; f(7)
makeT().Mp

//
//
//
//
//

like t.Mv(7)
like pt.Mp(7)
like (*pt).Mv(7)
like (&t).Mp(7)
invalid: result of makeT() is not addressable

Although the examples above use non-interface types, it is also legal to create a method
value from a value of interface type.
var i interface { M(int) } = myVal
f := i.M; f(7) // like i.M(7)

Index expressions
A primary expression of the form
a[x]

denotes the element of the array, pointer to array, slice, string or map a indexed by x. The
value x is called the index or map key, respectively. The following rules apply:
If a is not a map:

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the index x must be of integer type or untyped; it is in range if 0 <= x < len(a),
otherwise it is out of range
a constant index must be non-negative and representable by a value of type int
For a of array type A:
a constant index must be in range
if x is out of range at run time, a run-time panic occurs
a[x] is the array element at index x and the type of a[x] is the element type of A
For a of pointer to array type:
a[x] is shorthand for (*a)[x]

For a of slice type S:

if x is out of range at run time, a run-time panic occurs
a[x] is the slice element at index x and the type of a[x] is the element type of S
For a of string type:
a constant index must be in range if the string a is also constant
if x is out of range at run time, a run-time panic occurs
a[x] is the non-constant byte value at index x and the type of a[x] is byte
a[x] may not be assigned to
For a of map type M:
x's type must be assignable to the key type of M

if the map contains an entry with key x, a[x] is the map value with key x and the
type of a[x] is the value type of M
if the map is nil or does not contain such an entry, a[x] is the zero value for the
value type of M
Otherwise a[x] is illegal.
An index expression on a map a of type map[K]V used in an assignment or initialization of
the special form
v, ok = a[x]
v, ok := a[x]
var v, ok = a[x]

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yields an additional untyped boolean value. The value of ok is true if the key x is present
in the map, and false otherwise.
Assigning to an element of a nil map causes a run-time panic.

Slice expressions
Slice expressions construct a substring or slice from a string, array, pointer to array, or
slice. There are two variants: a simple form that specifies a low and high bound, and a full
form that also specifies a bound on the capacity.
Simple slice expressions
For a string, array, pointer to array, or slice a, the primary expression
a[low : high]

constructs a substring or slice. The indices low and high select which elements of
operand a appear in the result. The result has indices starting at 0 and length equal to
high - low. After slicing the array a
a := [5]int{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
s := a[1:4]

the slice s has type []int, length 3, capacity 4, and elements

s[0] == 2
s[1] == 3
s[2] == 4

For convenience, any of the indices may be omitted. A missing low index defaults to zero;
a missing high index defaults to the length of the sliced operand:
a[2:]
a[:3]
a[:]

// same as a[2 : len(a)]

// same as a[0 : 3]
// same as a[0 : len(a)]

If a is a pointer to an array, a[low : high] is shorthand for (*a)[low : high].

For arrays or strings, the indices are in range if 0 <= low <= high <= len(a), otherwise
they are out of range. For slices, the upper index bound is the slice capacity cap(a) rather
than the length. A constant index must be non-negative and representable by a value of

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type int; for arrays or constant strings, constant indices must also be in range. If both
indices are constant, they must satisfy low <= high. If the indices are out of range at run
time, a run-time panic occurs.
Except for untyped strings, if the sliced operand is a string or slice, the result of the slice
operation is a non-constant value of the same type as the operand. For untyped string
operands the result is a non-constant value of type string. If the sliced operand is an
array, it must be addressable and the result of the slice operation is a slice with the same
element type as the array.
If the sliced operand of a valid slice expression is a nil slice, the result is a nil slice.
Otherwise, the result shares its underlying array with the operand.
Full slice expressions
For an array, pointer to array, or slice a (but not a string), the primary expression
a[low : high : max]

constructs a slice of the same type, and with the same length and elements as the simple
slice expression a[low : high]. Additionally, it controls the resulting slice's capacity by
setting it to max - low. Only the first index may be omitted; it defaults to 0. After slicing the
array a
a := [5]int{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
t := a[1:3:5]

the slice t has type []int, length 2, capacity 4, and elements

t[0] == 2
t[1] == 3

As for simple slice expressions, if a is a pointer to an array, a[low : high : max] is

shorthand for (*a)[low : high : max]. If the sliced operand is an array, it must be
addressable.
The indices are in range if 0 <= low <= high <= max <= cap(a), otherwise they are out
of range. A constant index must be non-negative and representable by a value of type
int; for arrays, constant indices must also be in range. If multiple indices are constant, the
constants that are present must be in range relative to each other. If the indices are out of
range at run time, a run-time panic occurs.

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Type assertions
For an expression x of interface type and a type T, the primary expression
x.(T)

asserts that x is not nil and that the value stored in x is of type T. The notation x.(T) is
called a type assertion.
More precisely, if T is not an interface type, x.(T) asserts that the dynamic type of x is
identical to the type T. In this case, T must implement the (interface) type of x; otherwise
the type assertion is invalid since it is not possible for x to store a value of type T. If T is an
interface type, x.(T) asserts that the dynamic type of x implements the interface T.
If the type assertion holds, the value of the expression is the value stored in x and its type
is T. If the type assertion is false, a run-time panic occurs. In other words, even though the
dynamic type of x is known only at run time, the type of x.(T) is known to be T in a correct
program.
var x interface{} = 7
i := x.(int)

// x has dynamic type int and value 7

// i has type int and value 7

type I interface { m() }

var y I
s := y.(string)
// illegal: string does not implement I (missing
method m)
r := y.(io.Reader)
// r has type io.Reader and y must implement both
I and io.Reader

A type assertion used in an assignment or initialization of the special form

v, ok = x.(T)
v, ok := x.(T)
var v, ok = x.(T)

yields an additional untyped boolean value. The value of ok is true if the assertion holds.
Otherwise it is false and the value of v is the zero value for type T. No run-time panic
occurs in this case.

Calls
Given an expression f of function type F,

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f(a1, a2, an)

calls f with arguments a1, a2, an. Except for one special case, arguments must be
single-valued expressions assignable to the parameter types of F and are evaluated
before the function is called. The type of the expression is the result type of F. A method
invocation is similar but the method itself is specified as a selector upon a value of the
receiver type for the method.
math.Atan2(x, y)
var pt *Point
pt.Scale(3.5)

// function call
// method call with receiver pt

In a function call, the function value and arguments are evaluated in the usual order. After
they are evaluated, the parameters of the call are passed by value to the function and the
called function begins execution. The return parameters of the function are passed by
value back to the calling function when the function returns.
Calling a nil function value causes a run-time panic.
As a special case, if the return values of a function or method g are equal in number and
individually assignable to the parameters of another function or method f, then the call
f(g(parameters_of_g)) will invoke f after binding the return values of g to the
parameters of f in order. The call of f must contain no parameters other than the call of g,
and g must have at least one return value. If f has a final ... parameter, it is assigned the
return values of g that remain after assignment of regular parameters.
func Split(s string, pos int) (string, string) {
return s[0:pos], s[pos:]
}
func Join(s, t string) string {
return s + t
}
if Join(Split(value, len(value)/2)) != value {
log.Panic("test fails")
}

A method call x.m() is valid if the method set of (the type of) x contains m and the
argument list can be assigned to the parameter list of m. If x is addressable and &x's
method set contains m, x.m() is shorthand for (&x).m():

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var p Point
p.Scale(3.5)

There is no distinct method type and there are no method literals.

Passing arguments to ... parameters

If f is variadic with a final parameter p of type ...T, then within f the type of p is
equivalent to type []T. If f is invoked with no actual arguments for p, the value passed to
p is nil. Otherwise, the value passed is a new slice of type []T with a new underlying
array whose successive elements are the actual arguments, which all must be assignable
to T. The length and capacity of the slice is therefore the number of arguments bound to p
and may differ for each call site.
Given the function and calls
func Greeting(prefix string, who ...string)
Greeting("nobody")
Greeting("hello:", "Joe", "Anna", "Eileen")

within Greeting, who will have the value nil in the first call, and []string{"Joe",
"Anna", "Eileen"} in the second.
If the final argument is assignable to a slice type []T, it may be passed unchanged as the
value for a ...T parameter if the argument is followed by .... In this case no new slice is
created.
Given the slice s and call
s := []string{"James", "Jasmine"}
Greeting("goodbye:", s...)

within Greeting, who will have the same value as s with the same underlying array.

Operators
Operators combine operands into expressions.
Expression = UnaryExpr | Expression binary_op Expression .
UnaryExpr = PrimaryExpr | unary_op UnaryExpr .
binary_op

= "||" | "&&" | rel_op | add_op | mul_op .

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rel_op
add_op
mul_op

= "==" | "!=" | "<" | "<=" | ">" | ">=" .

= "+" | "-" | "|" | "^" .
= "*" | "/" | "%" | "<<" | ">>" | "&" | "&^" .

unary_op

= "+" | "-" | "!" | "^" | "*" | "&" | "<-" .

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Comparisons are discussed elsewhere. For other binary operators, the operand types
must be identical unless the operation involves shifts or untyped constants. For operations
involving constants only, see the section on constant expressions.
Except for shift operations, if one operand is an untyped constant and the other operand is
not, the constant is converted to the type of the other operand.
The right operand in a shift expression must have unsigned integer type or be an untyped
constant that can be converted to unsigned integer type. If the left operand of a
non-constant shift expression is an untyped constant, it is first converted to the type it
would assume if the shift expression were replaced by its left operand alone.
var s uint = 33
var i = 1<<s
// 1 has type int
var j int32 = 1<<s
// 1 has type int32; j == 0
var k = uint64(1<<s)
// 1 has type uint64; k == 1<<33
var m int = 1.0<<s
// 1.0 has type int; m == 0 if ints are 32bits in
size
var n = 1.0<<s == j
// 1.0 has type int32; n == true
var o = 1<<s == 2<<s
// 1 and 2 have type int; o == true if ints are
32bits in size
var p = 1<<s == 1<<33 // illegal if ints are 32bits in size: 1 has type
int, but 1<<33 overflows int
var u = 1.0<<s
// illegal: 1.0 has type float64, cannot shift
var u1 = 1.0<<s != 0
// illegal: 1.0 has type float64, cannot shift
var u2 = 1<<s != 1.0
// illegal: 1 has type float64, cannot shift
var v float32 = 1<<s
// illegal: 1 has type float32, cannot shift
var w int64 = 1.0<<33 // 1.0<<33 is a constant shift expression

Operator precedence
Unary operators have the highest precedence. As the ++ and -- operators form
statements, not expressions, they fall outside the operator hierarchy. As a consequence,
statement *p++ is the same as (*p)++.
There are five precedence levels for binary operators. Multiplication operators bind
strongest, followed by addition operators, comparison operators, && (logical AND), and
finally || (logical OR):

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Precedence
5
4
3
2
1

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Operator
* / % << >> & &^
+ - | ^
== != < <= > >=
&&
||

Binary operators of the same precedence associate from left to right. For instance, x / y
* z is the same as (x / y) * z.
+x
23 + 3*x[i]
x <= f()
^a >> b
f() || g()
x == y+1 && <-chanPtr > 0

Arithmetic operators
Arithmetic operators apply to numeric values and yield a result of the same type as the
first operand. The four standard arithmetic operators (+, -, *, /) apply to integer, floatingpoint, and complex types; + also applies to strings. The bitwise logical and shift operators
apply to integers only.
+
*
/
%

sum
difference
product
quotient
remainder

integers,
integers,
integers,
integers,
integers

floats,
floats,
floats,
floats,

complex
complex
complex
complex

values, strings
values
values
values

&
|
^
&^

bitwise AND
bitwise OR
bitwise XOR
bit clear (AND NOT)

integers
integers
integers
integers

<<
>>

left shift
right shift

integer << unsigned integer

integer >> unsigned integer

Integer operators
For two integer values x and y, the integer quotient q = x / y and remainder r = x % y
satisfy the following relationships:

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x = q*y + r

and

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|r| < |y|

with x / y truncated towards zero ("truncated division").

x
5
-5
5
-5

y
3
3
-3
-3

x / y
1
-1
-1
1

x % y
2
-2
2
-2

As an exception to this rule, if the dividend x is the most negative value for the int type of
x, the quotient q = x / -1 is equal to x (and r = 0).

int8
int16
int32
int64

x, q
-128
-32768
-2147483648
-9223372036854775808

If the divisor is a constant, it must not be zero. If the divisor is zero at run time, a run-time
panic occurs. If the dividend is non-negative and the divisor is a constant power of 2, the
division may be replaced by a right shift, and computing the remainder may be replaced
by a bitwise AND operation:
x
11
-11

x / 4
2
-2

x % 4
3
-3

x >> 2
2
-3

x & 3
3
1

The shift operators shift the left operand by the shift count specified by the right operand.
They implement arithmetic shifts if the left operand is a signed integer and logical shifts if it
is an unsigned integer. There is no upper limit on the shift count. Shifts behave as if the
left operand is shifted n times by 1 for a shift count of n. As a result, x << 1 is the same as
x*2 and x >> 1 is the same as x/2 but truncated towards negative infinity.
For integer operands, the unary operators +, -, and ^ are defined as follows:
+x
-x
negation
^x
bitwise complement
unsigned x

is 0 + x
is 0 - x
is m ^ x

with m = "all bits set to 1" for

and

m = -1 for signed x

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Integer overflow
For unsigned integer values, the operations +, -, *, and << are computed modulo 2n,
where n is the bit width of the unsigned integer's type. Loosely speaking, these unsigned
integer operations discard high bits upon overflow, and programs may rely on ``wrap
around''.
For signed integers, the operations +, -, *, and << may legally overflow and the resulting
value exists and is deterministically defined by the signed integer representation, the
operation, and its operands. No exception is raised as a result of overflow. A compiler may
not optimize code under the assumption that overflow does not occur. For instance, it may
not assume that x < x + 1 is always true.
Floating-point operators
For floating-point and complex numbers, +x is the same as x, while -x is the negation of x.
The result of a floating-point or complex division by zero is not specified beyond the
IEEE-754 standard; whether a run-time panic occurs is implementation-specific.
String concatenation
Strings can be concatenated using the + operator or the += assignment operator:
s := "hi" + string(c)
s += " and good bye"

String addition creates a new string by concatenating the operands.

Comparison operators
Comparison operators compare two operands and yield an untyped boolean value.
==
!=
<
<=
>
>=

equal
not equal
less
less or equal
greater
greater or equal

In any comparison, the first operand must be assignable to the type of the second
operand, or vice versa.
The equality operators == and != apply to operands that are comparable. The ordering
operators <, <=, >, and >= apply to operands that are ordered. These terms and the result

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of the comparisons are defined as follows:

Boolean values are comparable. Two boolean values are equal if they are either
both true or both false.
Integer values are comparable and ordered, in the usual way.
Floating point values are comparable and ordered, as defined by the IEEE-754
standard.
Complex values are comparable. Two complex values u and v are equal if both
real(u) == real(v) and imag(u) == imag(v).
String values are comparable and ordered, lexically byte-wise.
Pointer values are comparable. Two pointer values are equal if they point to the
same variable or if both have value nil. Pointers to distinct zero-size variables may
or may not be equal.
Channel values are comparable. Two channel values are equal if they were created
by the same call to make or if both have value nil.
Interface values are comparable. Two interface values are equal if they have
identical dynamic types and equal dynamic values or if both have value nil.
A value x of non-interface type X and a value t of interface type T are comparable
when values of type X are comparable and X implements T. They are equal if t's
dynamic type is identical to X and t's dynamic value is equal to x.
Struct values are comparable if all their fields are comparable. Two struct values are
equal if their corresponding non-blank fields are equal.
Array values are comparable if values of the array element type are comparable.
Two array values are equal if their corresponding elements are equal.
A comparison of two interface values with identical dynamic types causes a run-time panic
if values of that type are not comparable. This behavior applies not only to direct interface
value comparisons but also when comparing arrays of interface values or structs with
interface-valued fields.
Slice, map, and function values are not comparable. However, as a special case, a slice,
map, or function value may be compared to the predeclared identifier nil. Comparison of
pointer, channel, and interface values to nil is also allowed and follows from the general
rules above.
const c = 3 < 4

// c is the untyped boolean constant true

type MyBool bool

var x, y int
var (
// The result of a comparison is an untyped boolean.
// The usual assignment rules apply.
b3
= x == y // b3 has type bool
b4 bool
= x == y // b4 has type bool

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b5 MyBool = x == y // b5 has type MyBool

)

Logical operators
Logical operators apply to boolean values and yield a result of the same type as the
operands. The right operand is evaluated conditionally.
&&
||
!

conditional AND
conditional OR
NOT

p && q
p || q
!p

is
is
is

"if p then q else false"

"if p then true else q"
"not p"

Address operators
For an operand x of type T, the address operation &x generates a pointer of type *T to x.
The operand must be addressable, that is, either a variable, pointer indirection, or slice
indexing operation; or a field selector of an addressable struct operand; or an array
indexing operation of an addressable array. As an exception to the addressability
requirement, x may also be a (possibly parenthesized) composite literal. If the evaluation
of x would cause a run-time panic, then the evaluation of &x does too.
For an operand x of pointer type *T, the pointer indirection *x denotes the variable of type
T pointed to by x. If x is nil, an attempt to evaluate *x will cause a run-time panic.
&x
&a[f(2)]
&Point{2, 3}
*p
*pf(x)
var x *int = nil
*x
// causes a run-time panic
&*x // causes a run-time panic

Receive operator
For an operand ch of channel type, the value of the receive operation <-ch is the value
received from the channel ch. The channel direction must permit receive operations, and
the type of the receive operation is the element type of the channel. The expression
blocks until a value is available. Receiving from a nil channel blocks forever. A receive
operation on a closed channel can always proceed immediately, yielding the element
type's zero value after any previously sent values have been received.

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v1 := <-ch
v2 = <-ch
f(<-ch)
<-strobe // wait until clock pulse and discard received value

A receive expression used in an assignment or initialization of the special form

x, ok = <-ch
x, ok := <-ch
var x, ok = <-ch

yields an additional untyped boolean result reporting whether the communication

succeeded. The value of ok is true if the value received was delivered by a successful
send operation to the channel, or false if it is a zero value generated because the
channel is closed and empty.

Conversions
Conversions are expressions of the form T(x) where T is a type and x is an expression
that can be converted to type T.
Conversion = Type "(" Expression [ "," ] ")" .

If the type starts with the operator * or <-, or if the type starts with the keyword func and
has no result list, it must be parenthesized when necessary to avoid ambiguity:
*Point(p)
(*Point)(p)
<-chan int(c)
(<-chan int)(c)
func()(x)
(func())(x)
(func() int)(x)
func() int(x)

//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//

same as *(Point(p))
p is converted to *Point
same as <-(chan int(c))
c is converted to <-chan int
function signature func() x
x is converted to func()
x is converted to func() int
x is converted to func() int (unambiguous)

A constant value x can be converted to type T in any of these cases:

x is representable by a value of type T.
x is a floating-point constant, T is a floating-point type, and x is representable by a

value of type T after rounding using IEEE 754 round-to-even rules, but with an IEEE
-0.0 further rounded to an unsigned 0.0. The constant T(x) is the rounded value.
x is an integer constant and T is a string type. The same rule as for non-constant x

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applies in this case.

Converting a constant yields a typed constant as result.
uint(iota)
// iota value of type uint
float32(2.718281828)
// 2.718281828 of type float32
complex128(1)
// 1.0 + 0.0i of type complex128
float32(0.49999999)
// 0.5 of type float32
float64(-1e-1000)
// 0.0 of type float64
string('x')
// "x" of type string
string(0x266c)
// "" of type string
MyString("foo" + "bar") // "foobar" of type MyString
string([]byte{'a'})
// not a constant: []byte{'a'} is not a constant
(*int)(nil)
// not a constant: nil is not a constant, *int
is not a boolean, numeric, or string type
int(1.2)
// illegal: 1.2 cannot be represented as an int
string(65.0)
// illegal: 65.0 is not an integer constant

A non-constant value x can be converted to type T in any of these cases:

x is assignable to T.
x's type and T have identical underlying types.
x's type and T are unnamed pointer types and their pointer base types have identical

underlying types.
x's type and T are both integer or floating point types.
x's type and T are both complex types.
x is an integer or a slice of bytes or runes and T is a string type.
x is a string and T is a slice of bytes or runes.
Specific rules apply to (non-constant) conversions between numeric types or to and from a
string type. These conversions may change the representation of x and incur a run-time
cost. All other conversions only change the type but not the representation of x.
There is no linguistic mechanism to convert between pointers and integers. The package
unsafe implements this functionality under restricted circumstances.
Conversions between numeric types
For the conversion of non-constant numeric values, the following rules apply:
1. When converting between integer types, if the value is a signed integer, it is sign
extended to implicit infinite precision; otherwise it is zero extended. It is then
truncated to fit in the result type's size. For example, if v := uint16(0x10F0), then
uint32(int8(v)) == 0xFFFFFFF0. The conversion always yields a valid value; there
is no indication of overflow.

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2. When converting a floating-point number to an integer, the fraction is discarded

(truncation towards zero).
3. When converting an integer or floating-point number to a floating-point type, or a
complex number to another complex type, the result value is rounded to the
precision specified by the destination type. For instance, the value of a variable x of
type float32 may be stored using additional precision beyond that of an IEEE-754
32-bit number, but float32(x) represents the result of rounding x's value to 32-bit
precision. Similarly, x + 0.1 may use more than 32 bits of precision, but float32(x
+ 0.1) does not.
In all non-constant conversions involving floating-point or complex values, if the result type
cannot represent the value the conversion succeeds but the result value is
implementation-dependent.
Conversions to and from a string type
1. Converting a signed or unsigned integer value to a string type yields a string
containing the UTF-8 representation of the integer. Values outside the range of valid
Unicode code points are converted to "\uFFFD".
string('a')
//
string(-1)
//
string(0xf8)
//
type MyString string
MyString(0x65e5) //

"a"
"\ufffd" == "\xef\xbf\xbd"
"\u00f8" == "" == "\xc3\xb8"
"\u65e5" == "" == "\xe6\x97\xa5"

2. Converting a slice of bytes to a string type yields a string whose successive bytes
are the elements of the slice.
string([]byte{'h', 'e', 'l', 'l', '\xc3', '\xb8'})
string([]byte{})
string([]byte(nil))

// "hell"
// ""
// ""

type MyBytes []byte

string(MyBytes{'h', 'e', 'l', 'l', '\xc3', '\xb8'})

// "hell"

3. Converting a slice of runes to a string type yields a string that is the concatenation of
the individual rune values converted to strings.
string([]rune{0x767d, 0x9d6c, 0x7fd4})
\u7fd4" == ""
string([]rune{})
string([]rune(nil))

// "\u767d\u9d6c
// ""
// ""

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type MyRunes []rune

string(MyRunes{0x767d, 0x9d6c, 0x7fd4})
\u7fd4" == ""

// "\u767d\u9d6c

4. Converting a value of a string type to a slice of bytes type yields a slice whose
successive elements are the bytes of the string.
[]byte("hell")
[]byte("")

// []byte{'h', 'e', 'l', 'l', '\xc3', '\xb8'}

// []byte{}

MyBytes("hell")

// []byte{'h', 'e', 'l', 'l', '\xc3', '\xb8'}

5. Converting a value of a string type to a slice of runes type yields a slice containing
the individual Unicode code points of the string.
[]rune(MyString(""))
[]rune("")

// []rune{0x767d, 0x9d6c, 0x7fd4}

// []rune{}

MyRunes("")

// []rune{0x767d, 0x9d6c, 0x7fd4}

Constant expressions
Constant expressions may contain only constant operands and are evaluated at compile
time.
Untyped boolean, numeric, and string constants may be used as operands wherever it is
legal to use an operand of boolean, numeric, or string type, respectively. Except for shift
operations, if the operands of a binary operation are different kinds of untyped constants,
the operation and, for non-boolean operations, the result use the kind that appears later in
this list: integer, rune, floating-point, complex. For example, an untyped integer constant
divided by an untyped complex constant yields an untyped complex constant.
A constant comparison always yields an untyped boolean constant. If the left operand of a
constant shift expression is an untyped constant, the result is an integer constant;
otherwise it is a constant of the same type as the left operand, which must be of integer
type. Applying all other operators to untyped constants results in an untyped constant of
the same kind (that is, a boolean, integer, floating-point, complex, or string constant).
const a = 2 + 3.0
constant)
const b = 15 / 4
const c = 15 / 4.0

// a == 5.0

(untyped floating-point

// b == 3
// c == 3.75

(untyped integer constant)

(untyped floating-point

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constant)
const float64 = 3/2
division)
const float64 = 3/2.
division)
const d = 1 << 3.0
const e = 1.0 << 3
const f = int32(1) << 33
int32)
const g = float64(2) >> 1
floating-point constant)
const h = "foo" > "bar"
const j = true
const k = 'w' + 1
const l = "hi"
const m = string(k)
const = 1 - 0.707i
const = + 2.0e-4
const = iota*1i - 1/1i

https://golang.org/ref/spec

// == 1.0

(type float64, 3/2 is integer

// == 1.5

(type float64, 3/2. is float

// d == 8
// e == 8
// illegal

(untyped integer constant)

(untyped integer constant)
(constant 8589934592 overflows

// illegal

(float64(2) is a typed

//
//
//
//
//
//
//
//

(untyped boolean constant)

(untyped boolean constant)
(untyped rune constant)
(untyped string constant)
(type string)
(untyped complex constant)
(untyped complex constant)
(untyped complex constant)

h
j
k
l
m

==
==
==
==
==

true
true
'x'
"hi"
"x"

Applying the built-in function complex to untyped integer, rune, or floating-point constants
yields an untyped complex constant.
const ic = complex(0, c)
const i = complex(0, )

// ic == 3.75i
// i == 1i

(untyped complex constant)

(type complex128)

Constant expressions are always evaluated exactly; intermediate values and the
constants themselves may require precision significantly larger than supported by any
predeclared type in the language. The following are legal declarations:
const Huge = 1 << 100
//
1267650600228229401496703205376
const Four int8 = Huge >> 98 //
4

Huge ==
(untyped integer constant)
Four ==
(type int8)

The divisor of a constant division or remainder operation must not be zero:

3.14 / 0.0

// illegal: division by zero

The values of typed constants must always be accurately representable as values of the
constant type. The following constant expressions are illegal:
uint(-1)

// -1 cannot be represented as a uint

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int(3.14)
int64(Huge)
an int64
Four * 300
Four)
Four * 100
Four)

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// 3.14 cannot be represented as an int

// 1267650600228229401496703205376 cannot be represented as
// operand 300 cannot be represented as an int8 (type of
// product 400 cannot be represented as an int8 (type of

The mask used by the unary bitwise complement operator ^ matches the rule for
non-constants: the mask is all 1s for unsigned constants and -1 for signed and untyped
constants.
^1
uint8(^1)
uint8
^uint8(1)
int8(^1)
^int8(1)

// untyped integer constant, equal to -2

// illegal: same as uint8(-2), -2 cannot be represented as a
// typed uint8 constant, same as 0xFF ^ uint8(1) = uint8(0xFE)
// same as int8(-2)
// same as -1 ^ int8(1) = -2

Implementation restriction: A compiler may use rounding while computing untyped

floating-point or complex constant expressions; see the implementation restriction in the
section on constants. This rounding may cause a floating-point constant expression to be
invalid in an integer context, even if it would be integral when calculated using infinite
precision, and vice versa.

Order of evaluation
At package level, initialization dependencies determine the evaluation order of individual
initialization expressions in variable declarations. Otherwise, when evaluating the
operands of an expression, assignment, or return statement, all function calls, method
calls, and communication operations are evaluated in lexical left-to-right order.
For example, in the (function-local) assignment
y[f()], ok = g(h(), i()+x[j()], <-c), k()

the function calls and communication happen in the order f(), h(), i(), j(), <-c, g(),
and k(). However, the order of those events compared to the evaluation and indexing of x
and the evaluation of y is not specified.
a := 1
f := func() int { a++; return a }
x := []int{a, f()}
// x may be [1, 2] or [2, 2]: evaluation

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order between a and f() is not specified

m := map[int]int{a: 1, a: 2} // m may be {2: 1} or {2: 2}: evaluation
order between the two map assignments is not specified
n := map[int]int{a: f()}
// n may be {2: 3} or {3: 3}: evaluation
order between the key and the value is not specified

At package level, initialization dependencies override the left-to-right rule for individual
initialization expressions, but not for operands within each expression:
var a, b, c = f() + v(), g(), sqr(u()) + v()
func f() int
{ return c }
func g() int
{ return a }
func sqr(x int) int { return x*x }
// functions u and v are independent of all other variables and functions

The function calls happen in the order u(), sqr(), v(), f(), v(), and g().
Floating-point operations within a single expression are evaluated according to the
associativity of the operators. Explicit parentheses affect the evaluation by overriding the
default associativity. In the expression x + (y + z) the addition y + z is performed
before adding x.

Statements
Statements control execution.
Statement =
Declaration | LabeledStmt | SimpleStmt |
GoStmt | ReturnStmt | BreakStmt | ContinueStmt | GotoStmt |
FallthroughStmt | Block | IfStmt | SwitchStmt | SelectStmt |
ForStmt |
DeferStmt .
SimpleStmt = EmptyStmt | ExpressionStmt | SendStmt | IncDecStmt |
Assignment | ShortVarDecl .

Terminating statements
A terminating statement is one of the following:
1. A "return" or "goto" statement.

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2. A call to the built-in function panic.

3. A block in which the statement list ends in a terminating statement.
4. An "if" statement in which:
the "else" branch is present, and
both branches are terminating statements.
5. A "for" statement in which:
there are no "break" statements referring to the "for" statement, and
the loop condition is absent.
6. A "switch" statement in which:
there are no "break" statements referring to the "switch" statement,
there is a default case, and
the statement lists in each case, including the default, end in a
terminating statement, or a possibly labeled "fallthrough" statement.
7. A "select" statement in which:
there are no "break" statements referring to the "select" statement, and
the statement lists in each case, including the default if present, end in a
terminating statement.
8. A labeled statement labeling a terminating statement.
All other statements are not terminating.
A statement list ends in a terminating statement if the list is not empty and its final
non-empty statement is terminating.

Empty statements
The empty statement does nothing.
EmptyStmt = .

Labeled statements
A labeled statement may be the target of a goto, break or continue statement.
LabeledStmt = Label ":" Statement .

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Label

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= identifier .

Error: log.Panic("error encountered")

Expression statements
With the exception of specific built-in functions, function and method calls and receive
operations can appear in statement context. Such statements may be parenthesized.
ExpressionStmt = Expression .

The following built-in functions are not permitted in statement context:

append cap complex imag len make new real
unsafe.Alignof unsafe.Offsetof unsafe.Sizeof

h(x+y)
f.Close()
<-ch
(<-ch)
len("foo")

// illegal if len is the built-in function

Send statements
A send statement sends a value on a channel. The channel expression must be of
channel type, the channel direction must permit send operations, and the type of the value
to be sent must be assignable to the channel's element type.
SendStmt = Channel "<-" Expression .
Channel = Expression .

Both the channel and the value expression are evaluated before communication begins.
Communication blocks until the send can proceed. A send on an unbuffered channel can
proceed if a receiver is ready. A send on a buffered channel can proceed if there is room
in the buffer. A send on a closed channel proceeds by causing a run-time panic. A send
on a nil channel blocks forever.
ch <- 3

// send value 3 to channel ch

IncDec statements

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The "++" and "--" statements increment or decrement their operands by the untyped
constant 1. As with an assignment, the operand must be addressable or a map index
expression.
IncDecStmt = Expression ( "++" | "--" ) .

The following assignment statements are semantically equivalent:

IncDec statement
x++
x--

Assignment
x += 1
x -= 1

Assignments
Assignment = ExpressionList assign_op ExpressionList .
assign_op = [ add_op | mul_op ] "=" .

Each left-hand side operand must be addressable, a map index expression, or (for =
assignments only) the blank identifier. Operands may be parenthesized.
x = 1
*p = f()
a[i] = 23
(k) = <-ch

// same as: k = <-ch

An assignment operation x op= y where op is a binary arithmetic operation is equivalent to

x = x op (y) but evaluates x only once. The op= construct is a single token. In assignment
operations, both the left- and right-hand expression lists must contain exactly one singlevalued expression, and the left-hand expression must not be the blank identifier.
a[i] <<= 2
i &^= 1<<n

A tuple assignment assigns the individual elements of a multi-valued operation to a list of

variables. There are two forms. In the first, the right hand operand is a single multi-valued
expression such as a function call, a channel or map operation, or a type assertion. The
number of operands on the left hand side must match the number of values. For instance,
if f is a function returning two values,

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x, y = f()

assigns the first value to x and the second to y. In the second form, the number of
operands on the left must equal the number of expressions on the right, each of which
must be single-valued, and the nth expression on the right is assigned to the nth operand
on the left:
one, two, three = '', '', ''

The blank identifier provides a way to ignore right-hand side values in an assignment:
_ = x
x, _ = f()

// evaluate x but ignore it

// evaluate f() but ignore second result value

The assignment proceeds in two phases. First, the operands of index expressions and
pointer indirections (including implicit pointer indirections in selectors) on the left and the
expressions on the right are all evaluated in the usual order. Second, the assignments are
carried out in left-to-right order.
a, b = b, a

// exchange a and b

x := []int{1, 2, 3}
i := 0
i, x[i] = 1, 2 // set i = 1, x[0] = 2
i = 0
x[i], i = 2, 1

// set x[0] = 2, i = 1

x[0], x[0] = 1, 2

// set x[0] = 1, then x[0] = 2 (so x[0] == 2 at end)

x[1], x[3] = 4, 5

// set x[1] = 4, then panic setting x[3] = 5.

type Point struct { x, y int }

var p *Point
x[2], p.x = 6, 7 // set x[2] = 6, then panic setting p.x = 7
i = 2
x = []int{3, 5, 7}
for i, x[i] = range x { // set i, x[2] = 0, x[0]
break
}
// after this loop, i == 0 and x == []int{3, 5, 3}

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In assignments, each value must be assignable to the type of the operand to which it is
assigned, with the following special cases:
1. Any typed value may be assigned to the blank identifier.
2. If an untyped constant is assigned to a variable of interface type or the blank
identifier, the constant is first converted to its default type.
3. If an untyped boolean value is assigned to a variable of interface type or the blank
identifier, it is first converted to type bool.

If statements
"If" statements specify the conditional execution of two branches according to the value of
a boolean expression. If the expression evaluates to true, the "if" branch is executed,
otherwise, if present, the "else" branch is executed.
IfStmt = "if" [ SimpleStmt ";" ] Expression Block [ "else" ( IfStmt |
Block ) ] .

if x > max {
x = max
}

The expression may be preceded by a simple statement, which executes before the
expression is evaluated.
if x := f(); x < y {
return x
} else if x > z {
return z
} else {
return y
}

Switch statements
"Switch" statements provide multi-way execution. An expression or type specifier is
compared to the "cases" inside the "switch" to determine which branch to execute.
SwitchStmt = ExprSwitchStmt | TypeSwitchStmt .

There are two forms: expression switches and type switches. In an expression switch, the
cases contain expressions that are compared against the value of the switch expression.
In a type switch, the cases contain types that are compared against the type of a specially

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annotated switch expression. The switch expression is evaluated exactly once in a switch
statement.
Expression switches
In an expression switch, the switch expression is evaluated and the case expressions,
which need not be constants, are evaluated left-to-right and top-to-bottom; the first one
that equals the switch expression triggers execution of the statements of the associated
case; the other cases are skipped. If no case matches and there is a "default" case, its
statements are executed. There can be at most one default case and it may appear
anywhere in the "switch" statement. A missing switch expression is equivalent to the
boolean value true.
ExprSwitchStmt
ExprCaseClause
ExprCaseClause
ExprSwitchCase

=
}
=
=

"switch" [ SimpleStmt ";" ] [ Expression ] "{" {

"}" .
ExprSwitchCase ":" StatementList .
"case" ExpressionList | "default" .

If the switch expression evaluates to an untyped constant, it is first converted to its default
type; if it is an untyped boolean value, it is first converted to type bool. The predeclared
untyped value nil cannot be used as a switch expression.
If a case expression is untyped, it is first converted to the type of the switch expression.
For each (possibly converted) case expression x and the value t of the switch expression,
x == t must be a valid comparison.
In other words, the switch expression is treated as if it were used to declare and initialize a
temporary variable t without explicit type; it is that value of t against which each case
expression x is tested for equality.
In a case or default clause, the last non-empty statement may be a (possibly labeled)
"fallthrough" statement to indicate that control should flow from the end of this clause to
the first statement of the next clause. Otherwise control flows to the end of the "switch"
statement. A "fallthrough" statement may appear as the last statement of all but the last
clause of an expression switch.
The switch expression may be preceded by a simple statement, which executes before
the expression is evaluated.
switch tag {
default: s3()
case 0, 1, 2, 3: s1()
case 4, 5, 6, 7: s2()
}

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switch x := f(); { // missing switch expression means "true"

case x < 0: return -x
default: return x
}
switch
case x
case x
case x
}

{
< y: f1()
< z: f2()
== 4: f3()

Implementation restriction: A compiler may disallow multiple case expressions evaluating

to the same constant. For instance, the current compilers disallow duplicate integer,
floating point, or string constants in case expressions.
Type switches
A type switch compares types rather than values. It is otherwise similar to an expression
switch. It is marked by a special switch expression that has the form of a type assertion
using the reserved word type rather than an actual type:
switch x.(type) {
// cases
}

Cases then match actual types T against the dynamic type of the expression x. As with
type assertions, x must be of interface type, and each non-interface type T listed in a case
must implement the type of x. The types listed in the cases of a type switch must all be
different.
TypeSwitchStmt = "switch" [ SimpleStmt ";" ] TypeSwitchGuard "{" {
TypeCaseClause } "}" .
TypeSwitchGuard = [ identifier ":=" ] PrimaryExpr "." "(" "type" ")" .
TypeCaseClause = TypeSwitchCase ":" StatementList .
TypeSwitchCase = "case" TypeList | "default" .
TypeList
= Type { "," Type } .

The TypeSwitchGuard may include a short variable declaration. When that form is used,
the variable is declared at the beginning of the implicit block in each clause. In clauses
with a case listing exactly one type, the variable has that type; otherwise, the variable has
the type of the expression in the TypeSwitchGuard.
The type in a case may be nil; that case is used when the expression in the

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TypeSwitchGuard is a nil interface value. There may be at most one nil case.
Given an expression x of type interface{}, the following type switch:
switch i := x.(type) {
case nil:
printString("x is nil")
(interface{})
case int:
printInt(i)
case float64:
printFloat64(i)
case func(int) float64:
printFunction(i)
float64
case bool, string:
printString("type is bool or string")
(interface{})
default:
printString("don't know the type")
(interface{})
}

// type of i is type of x

// type of i is int
// type of i is float64
// type of i is func(int)

// type of i is type of x

// type of i is type of x

could be rewritten:
v := x // x is evaluated exactly once
if v == nil {
i := v
// type
(interface{})
printString("x is nil")
} else if i, isInt := v.(int); isInt {
printInt(i)
// type
} else if i, isFloat64 := v.(float64); isFloat64 {
printFloat64(i)
// type
} else if i, isFunc := v.(func(int) float64); isFunc {
printFunction(i)
// type
float64
} else {
_, isBool := v.(bool)
_, isString := v.(string)
if isBool || isString {
i := v
// type
(interface{})
printString("type is bool or string")
} else {
i := v
// type

of i is type of x

of i is int
of i is float64
of i is func(int)

of i is type of x

of i is type of x

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(interface{})
printString("don't know the type")
}
}

The type switch guard may be preceded by a simple statement, which executes before the
guard is evaluated.
The "fallthrough" statement is not permitted in a type switch.

For statements
A "for" statement specifies repeated execution of a block. The iteration is controlled by a
condition, a "for" clause, or a "range" clause.
ForStmt = "for" [ Condition | ForClause | RangeClause ] Block .
Condition = Expression .

In its simplest form, a "for" statement specifies the repeated execution of a block as long
as a boolean condition evaluates to true. The condition is evaluated before each iteration.
If the condition is absent, it is equivalent to the boolean value true.
for a < b {
a *= 2
}

A "for" statement with a ForClause is also controlled by its condition, but additionally it
may specify an init and a post statement, such as an assignment, an increment or
decrement statement. The init statement may be a short variable declaration, but the post
statement must not. Variables declared by the init statement are re-used in each iteration.
ForClause = [ InitStmt ] ";" [ Condition ] ";" [ PostStmt ] .
InitStmt = SimpleStmt .
PostStmt = SimpleStmt .

for i := 0; i < 10; i++ {

f(i)
}

If non-empty, the init statement is executed once before evaluating the condition for the
first iteration; the post statement is executed after each execution of the block (and only if
the block was executed). Any element of the ForClause may be empty but the semicolons

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are required unless there is only a condition. If the condition is absent, it is equivalent to
the boolean value true.
for cond { S() }
for
{ S() }

is the same as
is the same as

for ; cond ; { S() }

for true
{ S() }

A "for" statement with a "range" clause iterates through all entries of an array, slice, string
or map, or values received on a channel. For each entry it assigns iteration values to
corresponding iteration variables if present and then executes the block.
RangeClause = [ ExpressionList "=" | IdentifierList ":=" ] "range"
Expression .

The expression on the right in the "range" clause is called the range expression, which
may be an array, pointer to an array, slice, string, map, or channel permitting receive
operations. As with an assignment, if present the operands on the left must be
addressable or map index expressions; they denote the iteration variables. If the range
expression is a channel, at most one iteration variable is permitted, otherwise there may
be up to two. If the last iteration variable is the blank identifier, the range clause is
equivalent to the same clause without that identifier.
The range expression is evaluated once before beginning the loop, with one exception: if
the range expression is an array or a pointer to an array and at most one iteration variable
is present, only the range expression's length is evaluated; if that length is constant, by
definition the range expression itself will not be evaluated.
Function calls on the left are evaluated once per iteration. For each iteration, iteration
values are produced as follows if the respective iteration variables are present:
Range expression
array or slice
string
rune
map
channel

1st value

2nd value

a
s

[n]E, *[n]E, or []E

string type

index
index

i
i

int
int

a[i]
see below

m
c

map[K]V
chan E, <-chan E

key
element

k
e

K
E

m[k]

1. For an array, pointer to array, or slice value a, the index iteration values are
produced in increasing order, starting at element index 0. If at most one iteration
variable is present, the range loop produces iteration values from 0 up to len(a)-1
and does not index into the array or slice itself. For a nil slice, the number of
iterations is 0.
2. For a string value, the "range" clause iterates over the Unicode code points in the

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string starting at byte index 0. On successive iterations, the index value will be the
index of the first byte of successive UTF-8-encoded code points in the string, and
the second value, of type rune, will be the value of the corresponding code point. If
the iteration encounters an invalid UTF-8 sequence, the second value will be
0xFFFD, the Unicode replacement character, and the next iteration will advance a
single byte in the string.
3. The iteration order over maps is not specified and is not guaranteed to be the same
from one iteration to the next. If map entries that have not yet been reached are
removed during iteration, the corresponding iteration values will not be produced. If
map entries are created during iteration, that entry may be produced during the
iteration or may be skipped. The choice may vary for each entry created and from
one iteration to the next. If the map is nil, the number of iterations is 0.
4. For channels, the iteration values produced are the successive values sent on the
channel until the channel is closed. If the channel is nil, the range expression
blocks forever.
The iteration values are assigned to the respective iteration variables as in an assignment
statement.
The iteration variables may be declared by the "range" clause using a form of short
variable declaration (:=). In this case their types are set to the types of the respective
iteration values and their scope is the block of the "for" statement; they are re-used in
each iteration. If the iteration variables are declared outside the "for" statement, after
execution their values will be those of the last iteration.
var testdata *struct {
a *[7]int
}
for i, _ := range testdata.a {
// testdata.a is never evaluated; len(testdata.a) is constant
// i ranges from 0 to 6
f(i)
}
var a [10]string
for i, s := range a {
// type of i is int
// type of s is string
// s == a[i]
g(i, s)
}
var key string
var val interface {} // value type of m is assignable to val
m := map[string]int{"mon":0, "tue":1, "wed":2, "thu":3, "fri":4,
"sat":5, "sun":6}

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for key, val = range m {

h(key, val)
}
// key == last map key encountered in iteration
// val == map[key]
var ch chan Work = producer()
for w := range ch {
doWork(w)
}
// empty a channel
for range ch {}

Go statements
A "go" statement starts the execution of a function call as an independent concurrent
thread of control, or goroutine, within the same address space.
GoStmt = "go" Expression .

The expression must be a function or method call; it cannot be parenthesized. Calls of

built-in functions are restricted as for expression statements.
The function value and parameters are evaluated as usual in the calling goroutine, but
unlike with a regular call, program execution does not wait for the invoked function to
complete. Instead, the function begins executing independently in a new goroutine. When
the function terminates, its goroutine also terminates. If the function has any return values,
they are discarded when the function completes.
go Server()
go func(ch chan<- bool) { for { sleep(10); ch <- true; }} (c)

Select statements
A "select" statement chooses which of a set of possible send or receive operations will
proceed. It looks similar to a "switch" statement but with the cases all referring to
communication operations.
SelectStmt
CommClause
CommCase
RecvStmt
RecvExpr

=
=
=
=
=

"select" "{" { CommClause } "}" .

CommCase ":" StatementList .
"case" ( SendStmt | RecvStmt ) | "default" .
[ ExpressionList "=" | IdentifierList ":=" ] RecvExpr .
Expression .

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A case with a RecvStmt may assign the result of a RecvExpr to one or two variables,
which may be declared using a short variable declaration. The RecvExpr must be a
(possibly parenthesized) receive operation. There can be at most one default case and it
may appear anywhere in the list of cases.
Execution of a "select" statement proceeds in several steps:
1. For all the cases in the statement, the channel operands of receive operations and
the channel and right-hand-side expressions of send statements are evaluated
exactly once, in source order, upon entering the "select" statement. The result is a
set of channels to receive from or send to, and the corresponding values to send.
Any side effects in that evaluation will occur irrespective of which (if any)
communication operation is selected to proceed. Expressions on the left-hand side
of a RecvStmt with a short variable declaration or assignment are not yet evaluated.
2. If one or more of the communications can proceed, a single one that can proceed is
chosen via a uniform pseudo-random selection. Otherwise, if there is a default case,
that case is chosen. If there is no default case, the "select" statement blocks until at
least one of the communications can proceed.
3. Unless the selected case is the default case, the respective communication
operation is executed.
4. If the selected case is a RecvStmt with a short variable declaration or an
assignment, the left-hand side expressions are evaluated and the received value (or
values) are assigned.
5. The statement list of the selected case is executed.
Since communication on nil channels can never proceed, a select with only nil channels
and no default case blocks forever.
var a []int
var c, c1, c2, c3, c4 chan int
var i1, i2 int
select {
case i1 = <-c1:
print("received ", i1, " from c1\n")
case c2 <- i2:
print("sent ", i2, " to c2\n")
case i3, ok := (<-c3): // same as: i3, ok := <-c3
if ok {
print("received ", i3, " from c3\n")
} else {
print("c3 is closed\n")
}
case a[f()] = <-c4:
// same as:
// case t := <-c4
//
a[f()] = t

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default:
print("no communication\n")
}
for {

// send
select
case c
of cases
case c
}
}
select {}

random sequence of bits to c

{
<- 0: // note: no statement, no fallthrough, no folding
<- 1:

// block forever

Return statements
A "return" statement in a function F terminates the execution of F, and optionally provides
one or more result values. Any functions deferred by F are executed before F returns to its
caller.
ReturnStmt = "return" [ ExpressionList ] .

In a function without a result type, a "return" statement must not specify any result values.
func noResult() {
return
}

There are three ways to return values from a function with a result type:
1. The return value or values may be explicitly listed in the "return" statement. Each
expression must be single-valued and assignable to the corresponding element of
the function's result type.
func simpleF() int {
return 2
}
func complexF1() (re float64, im float64) {
return -7.0, -4.0
}

2. The expression list in the "return" statement may be a single call to a multi-valued
function. The effect is as if each value returned from that function were assigned to a

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temporary variable with the type of the respective value, followed by a "return"
statement listing these variables, at which point the rules of the previous case apply.
func complexF2() (re float64, im float64) {
return complexF1()
}

3. The expression list may be empty if the function's result type specifies names for its
result parameters. The result parameters act as ordinary local variables and the
function may assign values to them as necessary. The "return" statement returns the
values of these variables.
func complexF3() (re float64, im float64) {
re = 7.0
im = 4.0
return
}
func (devnull) Write(p []byte) (n int, _ error) {
n = len(p)
return
}

Regardless of how they are declared, all the result values are initialized to the zero values
for their type upon entry to the function. A "return" statement that specifies results sets the
result parameters before any deferred functions are executed.
Implementation restriction: A compiler may disallow an empty expression list in a "return"
statement if a different entity (constant, type, or variable) with the same name as a result
parameter is in scope at the place of the return.
func f(n int) (res int, err error) {
if _, err := f(n-1); err != nil {
return // invalid return statement: err is shadowed
}
return
}

Break statements
A "break" statement terminates execution of the innermost "for", "switch", or "select"
statement within the same function.

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BreakStmt = "break" [ Label ] .

If there is a label, it must be that of an enclosing "for", "switch", or "select" statement, and
that is the one whose execution terminates.
OuterLoop:
for i = 0; i < n; i++ {
for j = 0; j < m; j++ {
switch a[i][j] {
case nil:
state = Error
break OuterLoop
case item:
state = Found
break OuterLoop
}
}
}

Continue statements
A "continue" statement begins the next iteration of the innermost "for" loop at its post
statement. The "for" loop must be within the same function.
ContinueStmt = "continue" [ Label ] .

If there is a label, it must be that of an enclosing "for" statement, and that is the one whose
execution advances.
RowLoop:
for y, row := range rows {
for x, data := range row {
if data == endOfRow {
continue RowLoop
}
row[x] = data + bias(x, y)
}
}

Goto statements
A "goto" statement transfers control to the statement with the corresponding label within
the same function.

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GotoStmt = "goto" Label .

goto Error

Executing the "goto" statement must not cause any variables to come into scope that were
not already in scope at the point of the goto. For instance, this example:
goto L
v := 3

// BAD

L:

is erroneous because the jump to label L skips the creation of v.

A "goto" statement outside a block cannot jump to a label inside that block. For instance,
this example:
if n%2 == 1 {
goto L1
}
for n > 0 {
f()
n-L1:
f()
n-}

is erroneous because the label L1 is inside the "for" statement's block but the goto is not.

Fallthrough statements
A "fallthrough" statement transfers control to the first statement of the next case clause in
an expression "switch" statement. It may be used only as the final non-empty statement in
such a clause.
FallthroughStmt = "fallthrough" .

Defer statements
A "defer" statement invokes a function whose execution is deferred to the moment the
surrounding function returns, either because the surrounding function executed a return
statement, reached the end of its function body, or because the corresponding goroutine is

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panicking.
DeferStmt = "defer" Expression .

The expression must be a function or method call; it cannot be parenthesized. Calls of

built-in functions are restricted as for expression statements.
Each time a "defer" statement executes, the function value and parameters to the call are
evaluated as usual and saved anew but the actual function is not invoked. Instead,
deferred functions are invoked immediately before the surrounding function returns, in the
reverse order they were deferred. If a deferred function value evaluates to nil, execution
panics when the function is invoked, not when the "defer" statement is executed.
For instance, if the deferred function is a function literal and the surrounding function has
named result parameters that are in scope within the literal, the deferred function may
access and modify the result parameters before they are returned. If the deferred function
has any return values, they are discarded when the function completes. (See also the
section on handling panics.)
lock(l)
defer unlock(l)

// unlocking happens before surrounding function returns

// prints 3 2 1 0 before surrounding function returns

for i := 0; i <= 3; i++ {
defer fmt.Print(i)
}
// f returns 1
func f() (result int) {
defer func() {
result++
}()
return 0
}

Built-in functions
Built-in functions are predeclared. They are called like any other function but some of
them accept a type instead of an expression as the first argument.
The built-in functions do not have standard Go types, so they can only appear in call
expressions; they cannot be used as function values.

Close

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For a channel c, the built-in function close(c) records that no more values will be sent on
the channel. It is an error if c is a receive-only channel. Sending to or closing a closed
channel causes a run-time panic. Closing the nil channel also causes a run-time panic.
After calling close, and after any previously sent values have been received, receive
operations will return the zero value for the channel's type without blocking. The multivalued receive operation returns a received value along with an indication of whether the
channel is closed.

Length and capacity

The built-in functions len and cap take arguments of various types and return a result of
type int. The implementation guarantees that the result always fits into an int.
Call

Argument type

Result

len(s)

string type
[n]T, *[n]T
[]T
map[K]T
chan T

string length in bytes

array length (== n)
slice length
map length (number of defined keys)
number of elements queued in channel buffer

cap(s)

[n]T, *[n]T
[]T
chan T

array length (== n)

slice capacity
channel buffer capacity

The capacity of a slice is the number of elements for which there is space allocated in the
underlying array. At any time the following relationship holds:
0 <= len(s) <= cap(s)

The length of a nil slice, map or channel is 0. The capacity of a nil slice or channel is 0.
The expression len(s) is constant if s is a string constant. The expressions len(s) and
cap(s) are constants if the type of s is an array or pointer to an array and the expression
s does not contain channel receives or (non-constant) function calls; in this case s is not
evaluated. Otherwise, invocations of len and cap are not constant and s is evaluated.
const (
c1 = imag(2i)
c2 = len([10]float64{2})
function calls
c3 = len([10]float64{c1})
function calls

// imag(2i) = 2.0 is a constant

// [10]float64{2} contains no
// [10]float64{c1} contains no

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c4 = len([10]float64{imag(2i)})
no function call is issued
c5 = len([10]float64{imag(z)})
(non-constant) function call
)
var z complex128

https://golang.org/ref/spec

// imag(2i) is a constant and

// invalid: imag(z) is a

Allocation
The built-in function new takes a type T, allocates storage for a variable of that type at run
time, and returns a value of type *T pointing to it. The variable is initialized as described in
the section on initial values.
new(T)

For instance
type S struct { a int; b float64 }
new(S)

allocates storage for a variable of type S, initializes it (a=0, b=0.0), and returns a value of
type *S containing the address of the location.

Making slices, maps and channels

The built-in function make takes a type T, which must be a slice, map or channel type,
optionally followed by a type-specific list of expressions. It returns a value of type T (not
*T). The memory is initialized as described in the section on initial values.
Call

Type T

Result

make(T, n)
make(T, n, m)

slice
slice

slice of type T with length n and capacity n

slice of type T with length n and capacity m

make(T)
make(T, n)
elements

map
map

map of type T
map of type T with initial space for n

make(T)
make(T, n)

channel
channel

unbuffered channel of type T

buffered channel of type T, buffer size n

The size arguments n and m must be of integer type or untyped. A constant size argument
must be non-negative and representable by a value of type int. If both n and m are

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provided and are constant, then n must be no larger than m. If n is negative or larger than m
at run time, a run-time panic occurs.
s := make([]int, 10, 100)
s := make([]int, 1e3)
s := make([]int, 1<<63)
by a value of type int
s := make([]int, 10, 0)
c := make(chan int, 10)
m := make(map[string]int, 100)
elements

// slice with len(s) == 10, cap(s) == 100

// slice with len(s) == cap(s) == 1000
// illegal: len(s) is not representable
// illegal: len(s) > cap(s)
// channel with a buffer size of 10
// map with initial space for 100

Appending to and copying slices

The built-in functions append and copy assist in common slice operations. For both
functions, the result is independent of whether the memory referenced by the arguments
overlaps.
The variadic function append appends zero or more values x to s of type S, which must be
a slice type, and returns the resulting slice, also of type S. The values x are passed to a
parameter of type ...T where T is the element type of S and the respective parameter
passing rules apply. As a special case, append also accepts a first argument assignable to
type []byte with a second argument of string type followed by .... This form appends the
bytes of the string.
append(s S, x ...T) S

// T is the element type of S

If the capacity of s is not large enough to fit the additional values, append allocates a new,
sufficiently large underlying array that fits both the existing slice elements and the
additional values. Otherwise, append re-uses the underlying array.
s0 := []int{0, 0}
s1 := append(s0, 2)
[]int{0, 0, 2}
s2 := append(s1, 3, 5, 7)
[]int{0, 0, 2, 3, 5, 7}
s3 := append(s2, s0...)
[]int{0, 0, 2, 3, 5, 7, 0, 0}
s4 := append(s3[3:6], s3[2:]...)
[]int{3, 5, 7, 2, 3, 5, 7, 0, 0}
var t []interface{}
t = append(t, 42, 3.1415, "foo")

// append a single element

s1 ==

// append multiple elements

s2 ==

// append a slice

s3 ==

// append overlapping slice

s4 ==

//

t ==

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[]interface{}{42, 3.1415, "foo"}

var b []byte
b = append(b, "bar"...)
[]byte{'b', 'a', 'r' }

// append string contents

b ==

The function copy copies slice elements from a source src to a destination dst and
returns the number of elements copied. Both arguments must have identical element type
T and must be assignable to a slice of type []T. The number of elements copied is the
minimum of len(src) and len(dst). As a special case, copy also accepts a destination
argument assignable to type []byte with a source argument of a string type. This form
copies the bytes from the string into the byte slice.
copy(dst, src []T) int
copy(dst []byte, src string) int

Examples:
var a
var s
var b
n1 :=
n2 :=
n3 :=

= [...]int{0, 1, 2, 3, 4,
= make([]int, 6)
= make([]byte, 5)
copy(s, a[0:])
copy(s, s[2:])
copy(b, "Hello, World!")

5, 6, 7}

// n1 == 6, s == []int{0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
// n2 == 4, s == []int{2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 5}
// n3 == 5, b == []byte("Hello")

Deletion of map elements

The built-in function delete removes the element with key k from a map m. The type of k
must be assignable to the key type of m.
delete(m, k)

// remove element m[k] from map m

If the map m is nil or the element m[k] does not exist, delete is a no-op.

Manipulating complex numbers

Three functions assemble and disassemble complex numbers. The built-in function
complex constructs a complex value from a floating-point real and imaginary part, while
real and imag extract the real and imaginary parts of a complex value.
complex(realPart, imaginaryPart floatT) complexT
real(complexT) floatT

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imag(complexT) floatT

The type of the arguments and return value correspond. For complex, the two arguments
must be of the same floating-point type and the return type is the complex type with the
corresponding floating-point constituents: complex64 for float32 arguments, and
complex128 for float64 arguments. If one of the arguments evaluates to an untyped
constant, it is first converted to the type of the other argument. If both arguments evaluate
to untyped constants, they must be non-complex numbers or their imaginary parts must
be zero, and the return value of the function is an untyped complex constant.
For real and imag, the argument must be of complex type, and the return type is the
corresponding floating-point type: float32 for a complex64 argument, and float64 for a
complex128 argument. If the argument evaluates to an untyped constant, it must be a
number, and the return value of the function is an untyped floating-point constant.
The real and imag functions together form the inverse of complex, so for a value z of a
complex type Z, z == Z(complex(real(z), imag(z))).
If the operands of these functions are all constants, the return value is a constant.
var a = complex(2, -2)
const b = complex(1.0, -1.4)
x := float32(math.Cos(math.Pi/2))
var c64 = complex(5, -x)
const s uint = complex(1, 0)
can be converted to uint
_ = complex(1, 2<<s)
type, cannot shift
var rl = real(c64)
var im = imag(a)
const c = imag(b)
_ = imag(3 << s)
cannot shift

//
//
//
//
//

complex128
untyped complex constant 1 - 1.4i
float32
complex64
untyped complex constant 1 + 0i

// illegal: 2 has floating-point

//
//
//
//

float32
float64
untyped constant -1.4
illegal: 3 has complex type,

Handling panics
Two built-in functions, panic and recover, assist in reporting and handling run-time panics
and program-defined error conditions.
func panic(interface{})
func recover() interface{}

While executing a function F, an explicit call to panic or a run-time panic terminates the

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execution of F. Any functions deferred by F are then executed as usual. Next, any deferred
functions run by F's caller are run, and so on up to any deferred by the top-level function
in the executing goroutine. At that point, the program is terminated and the error condition
is reported, including the value of the argument to panic. This termination sequence is
called panicking.
panic(42)
panic("unreachable")
panic(Error("cannot parse"))

The recover function allows a program to manage behavior of a panicking goroutine.

Suppose a function G defers a function D that calls recover and a panic occurs in a
function on the same goroutine in which G is executing. When the running of deferred
functions reaches D, the return value of D's call to recover will be the value passed to the
call of panic. If D returns normally, without starting a new panic, the panicking sequence
stops. In that case, the state of functions called between G and the call to panic is
discarded, and normal execution resumes. Any functions deferred by G before D are then
run and G's execution terminates by returning to its caller.
The return value of recover is nil if any of the following conditions holds:
panic's argument was nil;

the goroutine is not panicking;

recover was not called directly by a deferred function.
The protect function in the example below invokes the function argument g and protects
callers from run-time panics raised by g.
func protect(g func()) {
defer func() {
log.Println("done") // Println executes normally even
if there is a panic
if x := recover(); x != nil {
log.Printf("run time panic: %v", x)
}
}()
log.Println("start")
g()
}

Bootstrapping
Current implementations provide several built-in functions useful during bootstrapping.

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These functions are documented for completeness but are not guaranteed to stay in the
language. They do not return a result.
Function

Behavior

print
prints all arguments; formatting of arguments is
implementation-specific
println
like print but prints spaces between arguments and a newline
at the end

Packages
Go programs are constructed by linking together packages. A package in turn is
constructed from one or more source files that together declare constants, types, variables
and functions belonging to the package and which are accessible in all files of the same
package. Those elements may be exported and used in another package.

Source file organization

Each source file consists of a package clause defining the package to which it belongs,
followed by a possibly empty set of import declarations that declare packages whose
contents it wishes to use, followed by a possibly empty set of declarations of functions,
types, variables, and constants.
SourceFile
";" } .

= PackageClause ";" { ImportDecl ";" } { TopLevelDecl

Package clause
A package clause begins each source file and defines the package to which the file
belongs.
PackageClause
PackageName

= "package" PackageName .
= identifier .

The PackageName must not be the blank identifier.

package math

A set of files sharing the same PackageName form the implementation of a package. An
implementation may require that all source files for a package inhabit the same directory.

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Import declarations
An import declaration states that the source file containing the declaration depends on
functionality of the imported package (Program initialization and execution) and enables
access to exported identifiers of that package. The import names an identifier
(PackageName) to be used for access and an ImportPath that specifies the package to be
imported.
ImportDecl
ImportSpec
ImportPath

= "import" ( ImportSpec | "(" { ImportSpec ";" } ")" ) .

= [ "." | PackageName ] ImportPath .
= string_lit .

The PackageName is used in qualified identifiers to access exported identifiers of the

package within the importing source file. It is declared in the file block. If the
PackageName is omitted, it defaults to the identifier specified in the package clause of the
imported package. If an explicit period (.) appears instead of a name, all the package's
exported identifiers declared in that package's package block will be declared in the
importing source file's file block and must be accessed without a qualifier.
The interpretation of the ImportPath is implementation-dependent but it is typically a
substring of the full file name of the compiled package and may be relative to a repository
of installed packages.
Implementation restriction: A compiler may restrict ImportPaths to non-empty strings using
only characters belonging to Unicode's L, M, N, P, and S general categories (the Graphic
characters without spaces) and may also exclude the characters !"#$%&'()*,:;
<=>?[\]^`{|} and the Unicode replacement character U+FFFD.
Assume we have compiled a package containing the package clause package math,
which exports function Sin, and installed the compiled package in the file identified by
"lib/math". This table illustrates how Sin is accessed in files that import the package
after the various types of import declaration.
Import declaration

Local name of Sin

import
"lib/math"
import m "lib/math"
import . "lib/math"

math.Sin
m.Sin
Sin

An import declaration declares a dependency relation between the importing and imported
package. It is illegal for a package to import itself, directly or indirectly, or to directly import
a package without referring to any of its exported identifiers. To import a package solely
for its side-effects (initialization), use the blank identifier as explicit package name:

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import _ "lib/math"

An example package
Here is a complete Go package that implements a concurrent prime sieve.
package main
import "fmt"
// Send the sequence 2, 3, 4, to channel 'ch'.
func generate(ch chan<- int) {
for i := 2; ; i++ {
ch <- i // Send 'i' to channel 'ch'.
}
}
// Copy the values from channel 'src' to channel 'dst',
// removing those divisible by 'prime'.
func filter(src <-chan int, dst chan<- int, prime int) {
for i := range src { // Loop over values received from 'src'.
if i%prime != 0 {
dst <- i // Send 'i' to channel 'dst'.
}
}
}
// The prime sieve: Daisy-chain filter processes together.
func sieve() {
ch := make(chan int) // Create a new channel.
go generate(ch)
// Start generate() as a subprocess.
for {
prime := <-ch
fmt.Print(prime, "\n")
ch1 := make(chan int)
go filter(ch, ch1, prime)
ch = ch1
}
}
func main() {
sieve()
}

Program initialization and execution

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The zero value

When storage is allocated for a variable, either through a declaration or a call of new, or
when a new value is created, either through a composite literal or a call of make, and no
explicit initialization is provided, the variable or value is given a default value. Each
element of such a variable or value is set to the zero value for its type: false for booleans,
0 for integers, 0.0 for floats, "" for strings, and nil for pointers, functions, interfaces,
slices, channels, and maps. This initialization is done recursively, so for instance each
element of an array of structs will have its fields zeroed if no value is specified.
These two simple declarations are equivalent:
var i int
var i int = 0

After
type T struct { i int; f float64; next *T }
t := new(T)

the following holds:

t.i == 0
t.f == 0.0
t.next == nil

The same would also be true after

var t T

Package initialization
Within a package, package-level variables are initialized in declaration order but after any
of the variables they depend on.
More precisely, a package-level variable is considered ready for initialization if it is not yet
initialized and either has no initialization expression or its initialization expression has no
dependencies on uninitialized variables. Initialization proceeds by repeatedly initializing
the next package-level variable that is earliest in declaration order and ready for
initialization, until there are no variables ready for initialization.
If any variables are still uninitialized when this process ends, those variables are part of

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one or more initialization cycles, and the program is not valid.

The declaration order of variables declared in multiple files is determined by the order in
which the files are presented to the compiler: Variables declared in the first file are
declared before any of the variables declared in the second file, and so on.
Dependency analysis does not rely on the actual values of the variables, only on lexical
references to them in the source, analyzed transitively. For instance, if a variable x's
initialization expression refers to a function whose body refers to variable y then x
depends on y. Specifically:
A reference to a variable or function is an identifier denoting that variable or function.
A reference to a method m is a method value or method expression of the form t.m,
where the (static) type of t is not an interface type, and the method m is in the
method set of t. It is immaterial whether the resulting function value t.m is invoked.
A variable, function, or method x depends on a variable y if x's initialization
expression or body (for functions and methods) contains a reference to y or to a
function or method that depends on y.
Dependency analysis is performed per package; only references referring to variables,
functions, and methods declared in the current package are considered.
For example, given the declarations
var (
a
b
c
d

=
=
=
=

c + b
f()
f()
3

)
func f() int {
d++
return d
}

the initialization order is d, b, c, a.

Variables may also be initialized using functions named init declared in the package
block, with no arguments and no result parameters.
func init() { }

Multiple such functions may be defined, even within a single source file. The init

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identifier is not declared and thus init functions cannot be referred to from anywhere in a
program.
A package with no imports is initialized by assigning initial values to all its package-level
variables followed by calling all init functions in the order they appear in the source,
possibly in multiple files, as presented to the compiler. If a package has imports, the
imported packages are initialized before initializing the package itself. If multiple packages
import a package, the imported package will be initialized only once. The importing of
packages, by construction, guarantees that there can be no cyclic initialization
dependencies.
Package initializationvariable initialization and the invocation of init functions
happens in a single goroutine, sequentially, one package at a time. An init function
may launch other goroutines, which can run concurrently with the initialization code.
However, initialization always sequences the init functions: it will not invoke the next one
until the previous one has returned.
To ensure reproducible initialization behavior, build systems are encouraged to present
multiple files belonging to the same package in lexical file name order to a compiler.

Program execution
A complete program is created by linking a single, unimported package called the main
package with all the packages it imports, transitively. The main package must have
package name main and declare a function main that takes no arguments and returns no
value.
func main() { }

Program execution begins by initializing the main package and then invoking the function
main. When that function invocation returns, the program exits. It does not wait for other
(non-main) goroutines to complete.

Errors
The predeclared type error is defined as
type error interface {
Error() string
}

It is the conventional interface for representing an error condition, with the nil value
representing no error. For instance, a function to read data from a file might be defined:

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func Read(f *File, b []byte) (n int, err error)

Run-time panics
Execution errors such as attempting to index an array out of bounds trigger a run-time
panic equivalent to a call of the built-in function panic with a value of the implementationdefined interface type runtime.Error. That type satisfies the predeclared interface type
error. The exact error values that represent distinct run-time error conditions are
unspecified.
package runtime
type Error interface {
error
// and perhaps other methods
}

System considerations
Package unsafe
The built-in package unsafe, known to the compiler, provides facilities for low-level
programming including operations that violate the type system. A package using unsafe
must be vetted manually for type safety and may not be portable. The package provides
the following interface:
package unsafe
type ArbitraryType int // shorthand for an arbitrary Go type; it is not
a real type
type Pointer *ArbitraryType
func Alignof(variable ArbitraryType) uintptr
func Offsetof(selector ArbitraryType) uintptr
func Sizeof(variable ArbitraryType) uintptr

A Pointer is a pointer type but a Pointer value may not be dereferenced. Any pointer or
value of underlying type uintptr can be converted to a Pointer type and vice versa. The
effect of converting between Pointer and uintptr is implementation-defined.
var f float64

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bits = *(*uint64)(unsafe.Pointer(&f))
type ptr unsafe.Pointer
bits = *(*uint64)(ptr(&f))
var p ptr = nil

The functions Alignof and Sizeof take an expression x of any type and return the
alignment or size, respectively, of a hypothetical variable v as if v was declared via var v
= x.
The function Offsetof takes a (possibly parenthesized) selector s.f, denoting a field f of
the struct denoted by s or *s, and returns the field offset in bytes relative to the struct's
address. If f is an embedded field, it must be reachable without pointer indirections
through fields of the struct. For a struct s with field f:
uintptr(unsafe.Pointer(&s)) + unsafe.Offsetof(s.f) ==
uintptr(unsafe.Pointer(&s.f))

Computer architectures may require memory addresses to be aligned; that is, for
addresses of a variable to be a multiple of a factor, the variable's type's alignment. The
function Alignof takes an expression denoting a variable of any type and returns the
alignment of the (type of the) variable in bytes. For a variable x:
uintptr(unsafe.Pointer(&x)) % unsafe.Alignof(x) == 0

Calls to Alignof, Offsetof, and Sizeof are compile-time constant expressions of type
uintptr.

Size and alignment guarantees

For the numeric types, the following sizes are guaranteed:
type

size in bytes

byte, uint8, int8

uint16, int16
uint32, int32, float32
uint64, int64, float64, complex64
complex128

1
2
4
8
16

The following minimal alignment properties are guaranteed:

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1. For a variable x of any type: unsafe.Alignof(x) is at least 1.

2. For a variable x of struct type: unsafe.Alignof(x) is the largest of all the values
unsafe.Alignof(x.f) for each field f of x, but at least 1.
3. For a variable x of array type: unsafe.Alignof(x) is the same as
unsafe.Alignof(x[0]), but at least 1.
A struct or array type has size zero if it contains no fields (or elements, respectively) that
have a size greater than zero. Two distinct zero-size variables may have the same
address in memory.

Build version go1.7.1.

Except as noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License,
and code is licensed under a BSD license.
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