What is the difference between Go's stack and heap memory allocation?
In Go, memory can be allocated on either the stack or the heap. The main difference between these two types of memory allocation is in their lifetimes and storage.
The stack is a fixed-size memory region allocated for each goroutine. Variables allocated on the stack are automatically freed when the function they are defined in returns. The size of the stack is limited and usually smaller than the size of the heap. Stacks are used for storing local variables, function arguments, and function call frames. The stack memory is managed automatically by the Go runtime and is optimized for fast allocation and deallocation.
The heap, on the other hand, is a larger, more flexible memory region that can be used to store data that needs to survive the lifetime of a function or goroutine. Memory on the heap is allocated and deallocated explicitly using the **make**
and **new**
built-in functions, and is managed by the Go garbage collector. Data stored on the heap can be accessed from multiple goroutines, and the size of the heap can grow dynamically as needed.
In general, allocating memory on the stack is faster and more efficient than allocating memory on the heap, since the stack memory is managed automatically and does not require garbage collection. However, the stack has limited size, so large or complex data structures must be allocated on the heap instead.