Variables in GoLang

The var keyword is what we use in declaring variables in GoLang

main.go

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    var name = "SaintMalik"
    var name string = "Saintmalik" // type declaration for string
    var myNumIs int  = 3 // type declaration for integers
    fmt.Println(myNumIs)
}

Shorthand Variables

You can also declare variables in short hand using :=

main.go

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    name := "SaintMalik"
    fmt.Println(name)
}

Global and Local Variables

Also notice the variables declared in the main function func main() is regarded as local variables, the variables can only be called within that main function.

Lets talk about Global variables too,

main.go

package main

import "fmt"

var name = "SaintMalik" // declaring global variables

func main() {
    fmt.Println(name)
}

You can't declare global variables using shorthand form of declaring variables, short hand variables can only be declared inside a function which makes them a local variable.

Shadowing in GoLang Variables

Shadowing is a feature in Go that helps you in situation where you can declare a variable name in a block and also declare another variable with the same name in an inner block without having errors.

here's an example

main.go

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    name := "Saintmalik"
{
    name := "malik"
    fmt.Println(name)
}
    fmt.Println(name)
}

However this wont work if you attempt to declare variables of the same name in the same block

main.go

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    name := "Saintmalik"
    name := "malik"
    fmt.Println(name) // no new variables on left side of :=
}

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