What Do Backticks Do in Go Struct Definitions?

What's the Purpose of Backticks in Go Struct Definitions?

In Go structs, backticks are used for defining struct tags, which assign additional information to the fields.

Struct Tags

The content enclosed within backticks following a field declaration is a struct tag. Struct tags are strings that serve as attributes or metadata for the field. They are used:

• For reflection purposes, allowing programs to introspect struct data
• In type identity checks, helping compare structs of different types

Consider this example:

type NetworkInterface struct {
    Gateway              string `json:"gateway"`
    IPAddress            string `json:"ip"`
    IPPrefixLen          int    `json:"ip_prefix_len"`
    MacAddress           string `json:"mac"`
}

The json:"gateway" tag for the Gateway field indicates that it should be mapped to the "gateway" field in JSON serialization/deserialization.

Backquotes for Raw String Literals

Backticks also signify raw string literals in Go. Raw string literals allow special characters to be entered without escape sequences. For example:

path := `C:\Users\John Doe`

In this case, the backslash character is interpreted literally, whereas in a regular string literal, it would have to be escaped as \.

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