Go by Example: Pointers

Go supports pointers, allowing you to pass references to values and records within your program.
	package main
	import "fmt"
We’ll show how pointers work in contrast to values with 2 functions: `zeroval` and `zeroptr`. `zeroval` has an `int` parameter, so arguments will be passed to it by value. `zeroval` will get a copy of `ival` distinct from the one in the calling function.	func zeroval(ival int) { ival = 0 }
`zeroptr` in contrast has an `int` parameter, meaning that it takes an `int` pointer. The `iptr` code in the function body then dereferences the pointer from its memory address to the current value at that address. Assigning a value to a dereferenced pointer changes the value at the referenced address.	func zeroptr(iptr int) { iptr = 0 }
	func main() { i := 1 fmt.Println("initial:", i)
	zeroval(i) fmt.Println("zeroval:", i)
The `&i` syntax gives the memory address of `i`, i.e. a pointer to `i`.	zeroptr(&i) fmt.Println("zeroptr:", i)
Pointers can be printed too.	fmt.Println("pointer:", &i) }

zeroval doesn’t change the i in main, but zeroptr does because it has a reference to the memory address for that variable.

$ go run pointers.go
initial: 1
zeroval: 1
zeroptr: 0
pointer: 0x42131100

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Next example: Structs.