Learning Go Language – Day 1

Key features of the Go language:
- Simplicity
- Strong and statically typed
- Fast compile times
- Garbage collected, AKA you do not need to manage your own memory
- Built-in concurrency
- Compile to standalone binaries
- Used for servers and web-applications
- Excellent community (golangbridge.org)

Variable Declaration

//// The 3 ways of declaring variables

// #1: Blank declaration
var i int
i = 42

// #2: Compacted declaration
var i int = 42

// #3: Shorthand declaration
i := 42

NOTE: You cannot use the colon-equal syntax at the package level, you have to use the full syntax

// NOPE
showSeason := 20

// YES
var showSeason int = 20

/*
TIP: declare variables like how you would read it. "You declare a variable named i with the type of integer".
*/

If you have a bunch of variables of the same datatype at the package level, you can group them up in a block and declare them at once. This makes the code look cleaner.

// Dirty code without block declaration
var ygoName string = "Xie"
var deckName string = "Manipulstring"
var charAge string = "???"

// Cleaner code with block declaration
var (
  ygoName string = "Xie"
  deckName string = "Manipulstring"
  charAge string = "???"
)

Variable Re-declaration & Shadowing

You cant re-declare variables, but you can shadow them.

You have to use variables you declared, otherwise you get yelled at.

Three Different Levels of Visibility:

1. Variables declared with a lowercase first-letter, which are visible to the package
2. Variables declared that are capitalized, which is visible globally
3. Variables declared inside blocks are block-scoped, and they can only be visible in that block of code

NOTE: Use single-letters for the names of short-lived variables; longer names for long-lived variables (using camelCase).

Type Conversion:

- destinationType(variable)
- Use strconv package for converting things to strings
- You have to be explicit in your conversion. Go will not assume type conversion for the fear of losing valuable data

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