How Does Go Represent Two-Dimensional Arrays and Slices in Memory?

Understanding Memory Representation of Two Dimensional Arrays in Go

Contrary to Java, where two dimensional arrays are collections of one-dimensional arrays that are not consecutively located in memory, both C and Go treat two dimensional arrays differently.

In Go, Array Memory Representation:

Go's arrays are inherently one-dimensional, but they can be composed to create multi-dimensional constructs. Each array is a contiguous block of memory, with elements occupying adjacent memory addresses.

x := [5][5]byte{}
fmt.Println(&x[0][3]) // prints memory address
fmt.Println(&x[0][4]) // prints adjacent memory address

In Go, Slice Memory Representation:

Slices are similar to arrays in terms of memory representation. Multidimensional slices are slices of slices, where each slice header contains a pointer to an underlying array, its length, and capacity.

x := make([][]byte, 2)
for i := range x {
    x[i] = make([]byte, 1000) // each slice has 1000 elements
}

The total memory used for this multidimensional slice is determined by the total number of slices and their lengths. Each slice header adds a small overhead.

In summary, Go's two dimensional array and slice memory representation closely resembles that of C, where elements are stored in contiguous memory blocks. However, slices offer the flexibility of varying inner slice lengths, making them suitable for dynamic data structures.

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