Type conversion in Go
Type conversion in Go refers to the process of converting a value between different data types. Go is a statically typed programming language, meaning that once a variable is declared, it cannot change its type. This static typing, as opposed to certain dynamically typed languages that might try to infer your intentions, necessitates explicit conversions between types to prevent ambiguity and capture common mistakes.
A thorough description with code examples may be found here:
Converting Numeric Types
Go provides a range of numeric types that can be broadly divided into floating-point and integer numbers. For optimization or to carry out particular computations, it is frequently required to convert between these kinds or between different sizes within them.
Transforming Different Types of Integers There are numerous integer data types in Go. If you wrap the value or variable with the name of the destination type, like you would with a function, you can convert between different integer sizes. Converting an int8 to an int32 is one example:
Caution: The wraparound If the value exceeds the smaller type’s maximum capacity, a wraparound may happen when converting from a bigger integer type to a smaller one. For example, numbers between -128 and 127 can be stored in int8. It will wrap around to -127 if you convert a value like 129 to int8. If Go can predict that a value will be too large, the compiler will throw an overflow error during compilation. On the other hand, the overflow may wrap around and result in unanticipated behaviour if it occurs during runtime, such as during an operation.
Converting Integers to Floats The functions float32() and float64() can be used to convert integers to floats.
Converting Floats to Integers When floats are converted to integers, the digits that follow the decimal point are truncated—that is, they are not rounded.
Numbers Converted Through Division In Go, any remainder is dropped (floor division) when two integers are divided to get an integer. Go will do floating-point division automatically, maintaining decimal precision, if any of the numbers in a division operation are floats.
Converting Strings
Character sequences known as strings are unchangeable in Go. String-to-number or string-to-byte slice conversions are common, particularly when working with binary data or user input.
Converting Numbers to Strings
- You can use strconv for integers.strconv package’s Itoa() converts integers to ASCII.
- fmt.Sprintf() is an additional method for converting numbers to strings; it yields a formatted string.
Converting Strings to Numbers
- String to Number Conversion For converting strings to numeric types, the strconv package offers functions.
- To convert ASCII to integers, use strconv.Atoi(). The converted value and a possible error are both returned by this function, therefore error management is essential.
You can also read Essential Operators In GoLang Every Programmer Should Know