Go Basics - 11. Functions in Go

In this article, we are going to explore how functions work in the Go programming language.

package main

import (
	"fmt"
)

func greeting(msg string) {
	fmt.Println(msg)
}

func main() {
	greeting("Hello, World!")
}

/*
  The result of the code above is:
  Hello, World!
*/

In this example, we have a function called greeting() that takes a msg as a parameter, which is of type string. The function takes whatever string is passed into it and prints it out.

Let's break down the function syntax so we can see all the necessary parts when creating a function in Go.

All functions in Go begin with the func keyword.
After the func keyword comes the name of the function. Which is 'greeting' in the above example.
After the name of the function, a pair of () contains the parameters the functions accepts, if there are any.
After the () comes a pair of {} which contains the functions body, or the code the function executes.

The main() function in Go is a special function as it is the entry point to every single Go application. It does not take any parameters and it cannot return anything.

Parameters of the same type

In this example, I have modified the greeting function to accept two parameters that are both of type string.

package main

import (
	"fmt"
)

func greeting(greeting string, name string) {
	fmt.Println(greeting, name)
}

func main() {
	greeting("Hello", "Bob")
}

/*
  The result of the code above is:
  Hello Bob
*/

However, Go provides some helpful 'syntactic sugar' when passing in multiple parameters of the same type, which allows us to do this instead:

package main

import (
	"fmt"
)

func greeting(greeting, name string) {
	fmt.Println(greeting, name)
}

func main() {
	greeting("Hello", "Bob")
}

/*
  The result of the code above is:
  Hello Bob
*/

Variadic functions

A variadic function is a function that can accept any arbitrary number of arguments.

package main

import (
	"fmt"
)

func sum(nums ...int) {
	fmt.Print(nums, "\n")
	total := 0
	for _, num := range nums {
		total += num
	}
	fmt.Println("Total: ", total)
}

func main() {
	sum(1, 2)
	sum(1, 2, 3)
}

/*
  The result of the code above is:
  [1 2]
  Total:  3
  [1 2 3]
  Total:  6
*/

Under the hood, the Go compiler converts the 'variadic arguments' into a slice. If you are using 'variadic parameters' you can only have one, and it has to be the last parameter.

We can modify our example above to accept additional parameters as well as the 'variadic parameters.'

package main

import (
	"fmt"
)

func sum(msg string, nums ...int) {
	fmt.Print(nums, "\n")
	total := 0
	for _, num := range nums {
		total += num
	}
	fmt.Println(msg, total)
}

func main() {
	sum("Total: ", 1, 2)
	sum("Total: ", 1, 2, 3)
}

/*
  The result of the code above is:
  [1 2]
  Total:  3
  [1 2 3]
  Total:  6
*/

Return values

Functions in Go can also return data from a function. Since Go is a typed language, we also need to specify the type we expect the function to return. We specify the return type between the () and the {}. In this example we are expecting the sum function to return a type of int.

package main

import (
	"fmt"
)

func sum(nums ...int) int {
	fmt.Print(nums, "\n")
	total := 0
	for _, num := range nums {
		total += num
	}
	return total
}

func main() {
	s := sum(1, 2, 4, 5)
	fmt.Println("Total: ", s)
}

/*
  The result of the code above is:
  [1 2 4 5]
  Total:  12
*/

Returning pointers

Go is unique in that it allows you to return a pointer to a value, like so:

package main

import (
	"fmt"
)

func sum(nums ...int) *int {
	fmt.Print(nums, "\n")
	total := 0
	for _, num := range nums {
		total += num
	}
	return &total
}

func main() {
	s := sum(1, 2, 4, 5)
	fmt.Println("Total: ", *s)
}

/*
  The result of the code above is:
  [1 2 4 5]
  Total:  12
*/

The result is the same as the previous example; however, in the previous example, we were returning a copy of total. In this example, we are returning a pointer to total and therefore are modifying the original value.

Multiple return values

Functions in Go can also return more than one value at a time.

package main

import (
	"fmt"
)

func divide(a, b int) (int, error) {
	if b == 0 {
		return 0, fmt.Errorf("Cannot divide by zero")
	}

	return a / b, nil // return nil since there is no error at this point
}

func main() {
	d, err := divide(5, 0)

	if err != nil {
		fmt.Println(err)
		return
	}

	fmt.Println(d)
}

/*
  The result of the code above is:
  Cannot divide by zero
*/

Multiple return values are used often in Go, especially functions that return not only a value, but also an error if something went wrong.

Methods

Functions that are attached to types are called methods. Typically, you will most often see methods that are attached to structs.

package main

import (
	"fmt"
)

type greeter struct {
	greeting string
	name     string
}

func (g greeter) greet() {
	fmt.Println(g.greeting, g.name)
}

func main() {
	g := greeter{
		greeting: "Hello",
		name:     "John",
	}

	g.greet()
}

/*
  The result of the code above is:
  Hello John
*/

Let's break down the method syntax:

func (g greeter) greet() {
	fmt.Println(g.greeting, g.name)
}

Like any other function, we begin with the func keyword
(g greeter) tells Go which type this method is attached to. This method will received the greeter struct and will set it to the variable g.
greet() - the name of the function.
fmt.Println(g.greeting, g.name) - since we are passing in the greeter struct, we have access to its properties, like greeting and name.

Wrap Up

In this article, we learned how to create and work with functions in Go.