Question: What is the purpose of the 'sync' package in Go, and how is it used for synchronization?
|
Answer: The 'sync' package in Go provides synchronization primitives such as mutexes, condition variables,
and wait groups for coordinating access to shared resources in concurrent programs.
These primitives help prevent race conditions and ensure safe concurrent access to data by allowing goroutines to synchronize their execution.
|
Question: Can you explain the difference between a pointer receiver and a value receiver in Go methods?
|
Answer: In Go, methods can have either a pointer receiver or a value receiver. A pointer receiver operates on a copy of the pointer to the value,
allowing the method to modify the original value.
A value receiver operates on a copy of the value itself, preventing the method from modifying the original value.
Pointer receivers are commonly used when methods need to modify the state of the receiver type, while value receivers are used for read-only operations.
|
Question: How does Go support reflection, and when is it useful?
|
Answer: Go supports reflection through the 'reflect' package, which provides functions for examining the type and
structure of variables at runtime. Reflection is useful when you need to write code that can work with values of unknown types
or when you need to inspect or modify variables dynamically at runtime.
|
Question: Can you explain the difference between the 'make' and 'new' functions in Go?
|
Answer: The 'make' function in Go is used to create slices, maps, and channels, initializing them
with a specific capacity or length.
The 'new' function, on the other hand, is used to allocate memory for a new value of a given type,
initializing it to the zero value of that type and returning a pointer to it.
The 'make' is used for initializing built-in data structures, while 'new' is used for allocating memory for custom types.
|
Question: What are 'closures' in Go, and how are they used?
|
Answer: The 'closures' in Go are anonymous functions that capture and retain the scope of
their surrounding variables. They are commonly used to create functions that encapsulate behavior and state,
allowing for more expressive and concise code.
Closures can be used to implement higher-order functions, callbacks, and deferred execution of code.
|
Question: How does Go support cross-compilation, and why is it useful?
|
Answer: Go supports cross-compilation, allowing developers to build executable binaries for different operating systems
and architectures from a single codebase. This is achieved by specifying the target operating system and architecture using
the GOOS and GOARCH environment variables when invoking the 'go build' command.
Cross-compilation is useful for distributing Go programs to platforms where the development environment may not be available or for building platform-specific binaries efficiently.
|
Question: What are anonymous functions in Go, and how are they used?
|
Answer: Anonymous functions, also known as lambda functions or function literals, are functions defined
without a name directly within the body of another function.
They are often used to define callbacks or to encapsulate functionality within a small scope.
Anonymous functions can be assigned to variables, passed as arguments to other functions, or returned from other functions.
|