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Go ProgramFlow

Links: 103 Golang Index


Go - If & Switch

Go - For Loops

Command line arguments

  • We get command line arguments using the os.Args package.
  • It returns a slice of strings where the first value is the absolute path of the executable file.
  • Accessing the elements : os.Args[1]
  • Arguments are always strings.

Labels

  • Labels are used in break, continue, and goto statements.
  • It is illegal to define a label that is never used.
  • In contrast to other identifiers, labels are not block scoped and do not conflict with identifiers that are not labels. They live in another space.
  • The scope of a label is the body of the function in which it is declared and excludes the body of any nested function.
  • Most of the time labels are used to terminate outer enclosing loops.
    a1 := [5]int{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
    b1 := [4]int{5, 6}
    
    outer:
        for _, value1 := range a1 {
            for _, value2 := range b1 {
                if value2 == 6 {
                    fmt.Println(value2, value1)
                    break outer
                }
            }
        }
        fmt.Println("after outer")
    
    // 6 1
    // after outer
    

GoTo

  • It allows us to jump to any label inside the same function
break and continue statements are restricted to be used only in for and switch statements but goto statements don't have this restriction
  • Creating a loop like a for statement

    i := 0
    loop:
        if i < 5 {
            // statements
            i++ 
            goto loop
        }
    

  • Not possible to jump over variable declarations

    goto todo // this will give an error
    x := 10 
    todo: 
        // statements
    

Discouraged to use goto statements

Scope

  • Scope means visibility.
  • The scope or the lifetime of a variable is the interval of time during which it exists as the program executes.
  • A name cannot be declared again in the same scope (for example a function in the package scope), but it can be declared in another scope.
  • In Go there are 3 Scopes:
    • File Scope: You can import a package only once although you can import it again if you use aliases (import f "fmt"). Basically the name should be unique.
    • Package Scope: Variables declared outside of the function are available for use to all the files in the package.
    • Local/block Scope: The variables defined in the function are local/block scoped.
package main
import "fmt" //file scope
const done = false //package scope
func main () {
    x := 10 //local (block) scope
    fmt.Println(x)
}
Unused package scoped variables don't return an error since they can be used in other files of the same package, whereas unused local/block scope variables do.

Last updated: 2022-05-28