Book Image

The Go Workshop

By : Delio D'Anna, Andrew Hayes, Sam Hennessy, Jeremy Leasor, Gobin Sougrakpam, Dániel Szabó
Book Image

The Go Workshop

By: Delio D'Anna, Andrew Hayes, Sam Hennessy, Jeremy Leasor, Gobin Sougrakpam, Dániel Szabó

Overview of this book

The Go Workshop will take the pain out of learning the Go programming language (also known as Golang). It is designed to teach you to be productive in building real-world software. Presented in an engaging, hands-on way, this book focuses on the features of Go that are used by professionals in their everyday work. Each concept is broken down, clearly explained, and followed up with activities to test your knowledge and build your practical skills. Your first steps will involve mastering Go syntax, working with variables and operators, and using core and complex types to hold data. Moving ahead, you will build your understanding of programming logic and implement Go algorithms to construct useful functions. As you progress, you'll discover how to handle errors, debug code to troubleshoot your applications, and implement polymorphism using interfaces. The later chapters will then teach you how to manage files, connect to a database, work with HTTP servers and REST APIs, and make use of concurrent programming. Throughout this Workshop, you'll work on a series of mini projects, including a shopping cart, a loan calculator, a working hours tracker, a web page counter, a code checker, and a user authentication system. By the end of this book, you'll have the knowledge and confidence to tackle your own ambitious projects with Go.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
1. Variables and Operators
2
2. Logic and Loops

Functions

Functions are a critical part of Go and we should understand their place. Let's examine some of the reasons for using functions:

  • Breaking up a complex task: Functions are used to perform a task, but if that task is complicated, it should then be broken down into smaller tasks. Functions can be used for small tasks to solve a bigger problem. Smaller tasks are more manageable, and using a function to solve specific tasks will make the entire code base easier to maintain.
  • Reducing code: A good indication that you should use a function is when you see similar code repeating throughout your program. When you have duplicate code, it increases the difficulty of maintenance. If you have one change to make, you will have multiple instances where your code needs to change.
  • Reusability: Once you have defined your function, you can use it repeatedly. It can also be used by other programmers. This sharing of functions will also reduce lines of code and save time by...