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SEARCH KEYWORD -- NIL SLICE

  Empty slice vs nil slice in GoLang

In Go, there is a type called slice which is built on top of array. It's a very convenient type when we want to handle a group of data. This post will explain a subtle but tricky difference between empty slice and nil slice. A nil slice is a slice has a length and capacity of zero and has no underlying array. The zero value of slice is nil. If a slice is declared like below, it is a nil slice. package main import "fmt" func main() { var a []string fmt.Println(a == nil) } The output will be t...

   GOLANG,JSON,EMPTY SLICE,NIL SLICE     2018-10-18 09:25:21

  Will nil == nil be true in GoLang

There is some interview question may ask whether nil == nil be true in GoLang. Wil it be true. false or compilation error? To know the answer, some knowledge about nil in GoLang needs to be explained first. nil definition According to Go's official documentation, the definition of nil is // nil is a predeclared identifier representing the zero value for a // pointer, channel, func, interface, map, or slice type. var nil Type // Type must be a pointer, channel, func, interface, map, or slice type...

   GOLANG,NIL,NIL EXPLANATION     2021-08-08 02:54:15

  How to Understand and Use nil in Golang Correctly?

In Golang, nil is a predefined identifier that carries different meanings in various contexts, but typically represents "none", "empty" or "zero value". It can be assigned to variables of pointer, slice, map, channel, function, and interface types. Understanding the significance of nil is crucial for writing robust Go programs, as mishandling nil can lead to unexpected issues. nil in Pointers In Go, pointers are a fundamental type that stores the memory address of a variable. When a pointer is d...

   FUNCTION,SLICE,MAP,CHANNEL,GOLANG,NIL     2024-01-05 05:19:40

  Be careful about nil check on interface in GoLang

nil check is frequently seen in GoLang code especially for error check since GoLang's special error handling convention. In most cases, nil check is straight forward, but in interface case, it's a bit different and special care needs to be taken. Take a look at below code snippet and guess what the output will be. package main import ( "bytes" "fmt" "io" ) func check(w io.Writer) { if w != nil { fmt.Println("w is not nil") } fmt.Printf("w is %+v\n", w) } func main() { var b *bytes.B...

   INTERFACE,GOLANG,NIL CHECK,NIL TYPE,NIL VALUE     2019-04-06 07:47:07

  Understanding Slice Behavior in Go

In Go, understanding how slices behave when passed to functions is crucial for writing efficient and bug-free code. This behavior is often a source of confusion for many developers, especially those new to the language. In this article, we'll explore the difference between passing slices by value and by reference, and how it impacts the modification of slices within functions. Introduction In Go, slices are a fundamental data structure used to work with sequences of elements. They are essentiall...

   PASS BY REFERENCE,ARRAY,SLICE,PASS BY VALUE     2024-03-10 06:43:51

  Implementing DESede/ECB/NoPadding cipher algorithm in GoLang

By default, GoLang doesn't provide the ECB mode cipher for DESede though there is CBC mode provided. In cases we need to encrypt/decrypt data with ECB mode, we need to implement those by ourselves. This mode is frequently used when encrypting/decrypting PIN block which is small block data less than 16 bytes. In this post, we will introduce how to implement the DESede/ECB/NoPadding algorithm in GoLang by using the existing cipher support. Here we will not cover how DESede works in detail, instead...

   SECURITY,SAMPLE,GOLANG,DES,DESEDE,3DES     2019-07-29 06:43:50

  Use downcase! with caution in Ruby

Ruby provides ! to change state of some object in place. Hence if you see some functions have ! appended, it means the state of the caller of the function is expected to be changed. This is a very interesting Ruby feature. But sometimes one should be cautious when using this kind of functions because you would get unexpected behavior if using improperly. Let's take an example of String#downcase!. According to the documentation. Downcases the contents of str, returning nil if...

   RUBY,EXCLAMATION MARK,DOWNCASE     2017-02-10 06:34:44

  The hidden risk of passing slice as function parameter

In Go's source code or other open source libraries, there are lots of cases where a slice pointer is passed to function instead of slice itself. This brings up a doubt why not passing slice directly as its internal is backed by an array pointer to point to underlying data? For example, in log package, the formatHeader function takes a parameter buf as type *[]byte instead of []byte. func (l *Logger) formatHeader(buf *[]byte, t time.Time, file string, line int) {} Let's understand the r...

   GOLANG,SLICE,SLICE POINTER     2020-12-13 06:11:14

  The internals of slice in GoLang

There are 3 components of slice:a) Pointer: Points to the start position of slice in the underlying array;b) length (type is int): the number of the valid elements of the slice;b) capacity (type is int): the total number of slots of the slice. Check the following code: package main import ( "fmt" "unsafe" ) func main() { var s1 []int fmt.Println(unsafe.Sizeof(s1)) } The result is 24 on my 64-bit system (The pointer and int both occupy 8 bytes). In the next example, I will use gdb to poke t...

   GOLANG,SLICE     2019-06-30 02:55:22

  JSON unmarshal in GoLang

In almost all mainstream programming languages, there is either built-in or third-party library to support parse JSON data because it is so popular for organizing and transferring data among different services. In GoLang, the built in json package also provides functions for marshalling and unmarshalling JSON data. Marshalling GoLang struct to a JSON string is relatively simple, just need to call json.Marshal(), it's a bit complicated to unmarshal an arbitrary JSON string into a GoLang struct ob...

   GOLANG,JSON,UNMARSHAL,EMPTY INTERFACE     2019-11-09 21:57:30

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