Pointers in Go: A Pragmatic Guide to Memory Manipulation

Before we embark on our journey through the world of pointers in Go, we must fist  grasp the significance of the & operator. 

func main() {

	var i int = 10
	// & is the address-of operator in Go, which returns the memory address of the variable
    // pronounced as “ampersand” in English.
	fmt.Println("the address of i is", &i)
}

 

When a variable is used to store the memory address of another variable, it is indeed referred to as a pointer.

func main() {

	var i int = 10
	// & is the address-of operator in Go, which returns the memory address of the variable
	fmt.Println("the address of i is", &i)

	// when a variable is used to store the memory address of another variable, it is indeed referred to as a pointer.
	var ptr = &i // ptr is a pointer variable
    // var ptr *int = &i
}

 

When placed before a pointer variable, the * operator is used to dereference the pointer, meaning it accesses the value stored at the memory address that the pointer is referencing.

func main() {

	var i int = 10
	// & is the address-of operator in Go, which returns the memory address of the variable
	fmt.Println("the address of i is", &i)

	// when a variable is used to store the memory address of another variable, it is indeed referred to as a pointer.
	var ptr = &i // ptr is a pointer variable

	// So we can guess the value of ptr equals the address of i
	fmt.Println(ptr)

	// Dereferencing the pointer to get the value it points to
	fmt.Printf("value pointed to by ptr is %d\n", *ptr) // This will print the value of i, which is 10
}

 

We've covered the basics of pointers in Go, including how to obtain the address of a variable, how to declare a pointer, and how to dereference a pointer to access the value it points to. Understanding these concepts is crucial for effective memory manipulation in Go.