Golang does not pass by reference

Golang is a widely popular modern programming language. It has excellent performance in all aspects. For example, in terms of concurrent programming, Golang has outstanding performance, so it is favored by more and more developers. . However, in some features of Golang, we will find that it is different from other languages. One of the important differences is that Golang does not have the feature of passing by reference.

In other programming languages ​​such as C, Java and Python, we can use reference passing to pass function parameters. In this way, the function can directly modify the value of the incoming parameter. Although this approach is not always used, it is a very useful technique when implementing some algorithms and data structures, and can also make the code simpler and easier to understand.

However, in Golang, this method does not work because Golang does not have the feature of passing by reference. In fact, function transfer in Golang is all by value, which means that when we call a function, we actually copy the value of the parameter and then pass the copied value to the function.

For example, consider the following code:

func main() {
    var a int = 10
    addOne(a)
    fmt.Println(a)
}

func addOne(x int) {
    x++
}

We declare an integer variable a in the main function, and later we pass it to the addOne function. In the addOne function, we are trying to add 1 to x, but we are not actually modifying the value of the original argument. So when we print the value of a in the main function, it's still 10.

This example shows the value-passing method of passing parameters to functions in Golang. Whether we are passing integers, strings, structures, or other types of parameters, parameters are passed by copying values. This decision is to make Golang more secure and reliable, and also to help developers avoid some common programming errors.

Of course, in actual development, when we need to modify the original values ​​of function parameters, we can do so in the form of function return values. For example, we can modify the above code to:

func main() {
    var a int = 10
    a = addOne(a)
    fmt.Println(a)
}

func addOne(x int) int {
    return x + 1
}

In this code, we return the modified value through the addOne function, and then assign the return value to the variable a in the main function. Since we know that the way functions pass parameters in Golang is by value, we can get the modified variables in this way.

In general, Golang’s lack of reference passing is not a disadvantage. On the contrary, it is an important decision in Golang’s design, making the code more stable and reliable. Of course, when we need to modify the original values ​​of function parameters, we can do so in the form of function return values.

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