How Does Go Handle Generic Functions, and What Are the Benefits of Generics in Go 1.18 ?

Understanding Generic Functions in Go

In the world of Go, generic functions have become a topic of interest. The question arises: does Go provide a mechanism for defining generic functions, or is there an alternative approach?

Go's approach to handling any type can be seen in functions like describe(), where an empty interface interface{} is employed to hold different types without requiring additional method implementations.

However, for Go 1.18 and beyond, a newer solution offers a more explicit way of defining generic functions:

Introducing Generics

In Go 1.18, the introduction of generics brings a type-safe way of writing generic functions. Let's take a look at the reworked Print() function:

// T can be any type
func Print[T any](s []T) {
    for _, v := range s {
        fmt.Print(v)
    }
}

Usage and Benefits

The added flexibility of generics allows you to work with different data types seamlessly. For example, you can pass a list of strings to the Print() function to print characters, or you can pass a list of integers to print numbers.

Print([]string{"Hello, ", "world\n"})
Print([]int{1, 2})

Output:

Hello, world
12

Conclusion

While Go initially relied on empty interfaces for handling different types, the addition of generics provides a more refined approach to writing generic functions, ensuring type safety and code readability.

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