Golang Tutorial – A Beginner’s Guide

The Go programming language is an open source project created by Google. It is a statically typed, compiled language with syntax loosely derived from that of C, add Golang’s own improvements and backwards-compatibility. Go is multi-paradigm, supporting structural, concurrent, and functional programming approaches.

1. Install Golang

The first thing we’ll need to do is install the Go programming language. You can download Go from the official Go website. At the time of writing this tutorial, the latest stable version is 1.9.

Once you have downloaded the installer, run it and follow the prompts. I opted to keep all the default settings when installing Go.

2. Write your first program

Now that we have Go installed, it’s time to write our first program. Create a new file called main.go and type the following code into it:

package main

import “fmt”

func main() {

fmt.Println(“Hello, World!”)

}

This program is pretty simple. The first line, package main, tells the compiler that this code is part of a program and not a standalone library. The next line, import “fmt”, brings in the fmt library so we can use its functions.

The main() function is where our program will start running. All Go programs must have a main() function. The code fmt.Println(“Hello, World!”) will print the text “Hello, World!” to the console.

3. Compile and run.

Now that we have written our program, it’s time to compile and run it. Open up a terminal and navigate to the directory where you saved main.go. Then type the following command:

go run main.go

You should see the following output:

Hello, World!

And that’s it! You’ve written, compiled, and run your first Go program!

3. go fmt

One of the benefits of Go is that it comes with a tool called go fmt that will automatically format your code for you. This tool is extremely useful for making sure your code adheres to the Go code style guide.

To use go fmt, simply navigate to the directory where your code is saved and type the following command:

go fmt

go fmt will walk through all the files in your directory and format them for you. It’s a good idea to run go fmt every time you finish working on a program. That way, you’ll never have to worry about code style when working on a team.

4. go install

The go install command is used to compile and install Go programs. This command is primarily used for installing command-line applications.

To use go install, simply navigate to the directory where your program is saved and type the following command:

go install

This will compile your program and install it in your $GOPATH/bin directory.

5. go get

The go get command is used to download and install Go packages. This command is used for downloading libraries that your program depends on.

To use go get, simply type the following command:

go get github.com/user/package

This will download the package located at github.com/user/package and install it in your $GOPATH.

6. go test

The go test command is used to execute Go unit tests. This command will run any test files in your current directory that end in _test.go.

To use go test, simply type the following command:

go test

7. go build

The go build command is used to compile Go programs. This command will produce a single binary file that can be run on your operating system.

To use go build, simply navigate to the directory where your program is saved and type the following command:

go build

This will produce an executable binary file with the same name as your program.

8. go run

The go run command is used to compile and run Go programs. This command will compile your program and then run the resulting binary.

To use go run, simply navigate to the directory where your program is saved and type the following command:

go run

This will compile and run your program all in one go.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we’ve covered the basics of the Go programming language. We’ve installed Go and written a simple program. We’ve also learned about some of the Go tools that are available, such as go fmt, go test, and go build.

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