Explain the use of Go's pointer receivers for method receivers?

Question

Jayant Kumar · Accepted Answer

In Go, methods can be defined with either a value receiver or a pointer receiver. A value receiver operates on a copy of the receiver value, whereas a pointer receiver operates on the value pointed to by the receiver.
When a method has a pointer receiver, the receiver can be modified by the method. This allows for the method to modify the original value, rather than just a copy of it. This is particularly useful when working with large data structures, where copying the entire value would be inefficient.
For example, let's say we have a struct type Person with a method ChangeName:
type Person struct {
    Name string
}

func (p *Person) ChangeName(newName string) {
    p.Name = newName
}

In this example, ChangeName has a pointer receiver p Person, which means that it operates on the Person value pointed to by p. When calling the ChangeName method, the receiver p is automatically converted to a pointer to the underlying Person value.
func main() {
    person := Person{Name: "John"}
    fmt.Println(person.Name) // "John"

person.ChangeName("Jane")
    fmt.Println(person.Name) // "Jane"
}

In this example, we create a Person value with the Name field set to "John". We then call the ChangeName method on the person value, passing in the new name "Jane". The method modifies the Name field of the original person value, and the output shows that the name has been successfully changed.
Using pointer receivers in methods can be a powerful tool for modifying values in place and avoiding unnecessary copying of data. However, it also requires careful consideration of potential side effects and concurrency issues, as multiple goroutines may attempt to modify the same value at the same time.

Explain the use of Go's pointer receivers for method receivers?

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Explain the use of Go's pointer receivers for method receivers?

Jayant Kumar @jayantkumar314

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