Pointers

Go has pointers. A pointer holds the memory address of a value.

The type *T is a pointer to a T value. Its zero value is nil. 

  1. var p *int

The & operator generates a pointer to its operand. 

  1. i := 42
  2. p = &i

The * operator denotes the pointer's underlying value. 

  1. fmt.Println(*p) // read i through the pointer p
  2. *p = 21         // set i through the pointer p

This is known as "dereferencing" or "indirecting".

Unlike C, Go has no pointer arithmetic.

pointers.go

  1. package main
  3. import "fmt"
  5. func main() {
  6.     i, j := 42, 2701
  8.     p := &i         // point to i
  9.     fmt.Println(*p) // read i through the pointer
  10.     *p = 21         // set i through the pointer
  11.     fmt.Println(i)  // see the new value of i
  13.     p = &j         // point to j
  14.     *p = *p / 37   // divide j through the pointer
  15.     fmt.Println(j) // see the new value of j
  16. }