Understanding Pointers in Go

?? Unlocking the Magic of Pointers in Go! ??

Hey everyone! ?? Today, let's unravel the mystery behind pointers in Go programming. Imagine pointers as arrows that show you where something is stored in the computer's memory.

?? What's a Pointer? Think of it like a treasure map. Instead of holding the treasure (data) directly, the map (pointer) shows you where to find it. For example, if you have a box (variable) labeled "gold," the pointer tells you exactly where that box is kept. A pointer in Go will return the address of where the variable was stored. For example, if I have this code:

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
	gold := 100
	pointer := &gold

	fmt.Println("this is the value ", gold)
	fmt.Println("this is the address ", pointer)

}        

In the above code, I created a variable, gold, and assigned it the value of 100, on the next line, I created a variable pointer and assigned it a reference to the variable gold, the & symbol is used here to instantiate a reference to the specified variable. Printing out the pointer will return the address of the variable gold in memory, try this out here.

Also, just as we used the & symbol to create a reference to a variable, we can also use the * symbol to dereference the value, i.e., if you want to get the main value from the pointer you can do that using the symbol, for example.

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
	gold := 100
	pointer := &gold

	fmt.Println("this is the value ", gold)
	fmt.Println("this is the address ", pointer)
	fmt.Println("this is also the value ", *pointer)

}        

The last print will return the value instead of the reference, you can try this code out here

?? Why Pointers Matter: Pointers allow us to modify data directly in memory. You can modify the value of a variable using its pointer without directly updating the initial variable.

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
	gold := 100
	pointer := &gold
	newGold := 200

	fmt.Println("this is the value ", gold)
	fmt.Println("this is the address ", pointer)
	fmt.Println("this is also the value ", *pointer)

	*pointer = newGold
	fmt.Println("this is the value ", gold)

}        

In the code above, I created a new variable newGold, and assigned 200 to it. I then decided to update the value in the pointer reference to the value of newGold, because this pointer contains the address to the gold variable, updating its value will also update the value in the gold variable. This is evident when you print out the value of the gold variable, it will now be 200 instead of 100.

Also, when used in functions, If you pass a pointer to a function, the function can change the original data, making programs more efficient and flexible, we will see this in the later posts.

Understanding pointers is like having a secret map to navigate the memory of your program. Play around with pointers on Go Playground to see the magic in action!

Got questions? Drop them below! Let's learn together and make this Go journey awesome! ????

Happy coding! ??

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