Making HTTP GET Requests in Go

Introduction:

In modern web development, interacting with external APIs is a common task. In Go, the net/http package provides a robust way to perform HTTP requests. In this tutorial, we'll explore how to create a simple Go program to make an HTTP GET request to an API endpoint.

Prerequisites:

• Basic understanding of Go programming language.
• Access to an API endpoint (replace https://api.example.com/endpoint with your desired API URL).

Code Explanation:

Package Imports:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "io/ioutil"
    "net/http"
)
        

Main Function:

func main() {
    // Replace 'YOUR_BEARER_TOKEN' with your actual bearer token
    bearerToken := "YOUR_BEARER_TOKEN"
    apiURL := "https://api.example.com/endpoint" // Replace with the API endpoint you want to call
        

Creating HTTP Request:

    req, err := http.NewRequest("GET", apiURL, nil)
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println("Error creating HTTP request:", err)
        return
    }        

Setting Authorization Header:

 req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+bearerToken)        

Sending HTTP Request:

    client := &http.Client{}
    resp, err := client.Do(req)
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println("Error sending HTTP request:", err)
        return
    }
    defer resp.Body.Close()
        

Reading Response Body:

    body, err := ioutil.ReadAll(resp.Body)
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println("Error reading response body:", err)
        return
    }
        

Printing Response:

    fmt.Println("Response:", string(body))
}        

Conclusion:

In this tutorial, we've demonstrated how to make an HTTP GET request in Go using the net/http package. This code structure can be utilized to interact with various APIs by modifying the request parameters and endpoints. Remember to replace placeholders like YOUR_BEARER_TOKEN and api.example.com with actual values before executing the code.

This example serves as a starting point for integrating HTTP requests into your Go applications, enabling communication with external services or APIs efficiently.