Go Programming Language For Dummies

 Title Page....3

Copyright Page....4

Table of Contents....7

Introduction....13

About This Book....13

Foolish Assumptions....14

Icons Used in This Book....14

Beyond the Book....15

Where to Go from Here....15

Part 1 Getting Started with Go....17

Chapter 1 Hello, Go!....19

Seeing What Learning Go Can Do for You....20

Installing Go on Your Machine....21

macOS....22

Windows....23

Using an Integrated Development Environment with Go....24

Writing Your First Go Program....26

Compiling and running the program....27

Understanding how a Go program works....29

Making sense of the Go file structure....30

Compiling for multiple operating systems....31

Comparing Go with Other Languages....33

Syntax....33

Compilation....34

Concurrency....34

Library support....34

Chapter 2 Working with Different Data Types....35

Declaring Always-Changing Variables....36

Using the var keyword: Type-inferred variables....36

Specifying the data type: Explicitly typed variables....37

Using the short variable declaration operator....38

Declaring Never-Changing Constants....39

Removing Unused Variables....39

Dealing with Strings....41

Performing Type Conversions....42

Discovering the type of a variable....43

Converting a variable’s type....44

Interpolating strings....46

Chapter 3 Making Decisions....49

Using If/Else Statements to Make Decisions....49

Laying the foundation for the if/else statement: Logical and comparison operators....50

Using the if/else statement....52

Short-circuiting: Evaluating conditions in Go....54

When You Have Too Many Conditions: Using the Switch Statement....58

Switching with fall-throughs....59

Matching multiple cases....60

Switching without condition....60

Chapter 4 Over and Over and Over: Using Loops....63

Performing Loops Using the for Statement....63

Iterating over a Range of Values....68

Iterating through arrays/slices....68

Iterating through a string....70

Using Labels with the for Loop....71

Chapter 5 Grouping Code into Functions....77

Defining a Function....77

Defining functions with parameters....78

Defining functions with multiple parameters....80

Passing arguments by value and by pointer....80

Returning values from functions....83

Naming return values....84

Working with variadic functions....84

Using Anonymous Functions....85

Declaring an anonymous function....85

Implementing closure using anonymous functions....86

Implementing the filter() function using closure....88

Part 2 Working with Data Structures....91

Chapter 6 Slicing and Dicing Using Arrays and Slices....93

Arming Yourself to Use Arrays....93

Declaring an array....94

Initializing an array....95

Working with multidimensional arrays....95

Sleuthing Out the Secrets of Slices....98

Creating an empty slice....98

Creating and initializing a slice....100

Appending to a slice....100

Slicing and Ranging....104

Extracting part of an array or slice....104

Iterating through a slice....107

Making copies of an array or slice....107

Inserting an item into a slice....109

Removing an item from a slice....111

Chapter 7 Defining the Blueprints of Your Data Using Structs....113

Defining Structs for a Collection of Items....113

Creating a Go Struct....116

Making a Copy of a Struct....117

Defining Methods in Structs....119

Comparing Structs....122

Chapter 8 Establishing Relationships Using Maps....125

Creating Maps in Go....125

Initializing a map with a map literal....127

Checking the existence of a key....127

Deleting a key....128

Getting the number of items in a map....128

Iterating over a map....129

Getting all the keys in a map....129

Setting the iteration order in a map....130

Sorting the items in a map by values....130

Using Structs and Maps in Go....133

Creating a map of structs....133

Sorting a map of structs....136

Chapter 9 Encoding and Decoding Data Using JSON....141

Getting Acquainted with JSON....141

Object....142

String....142

Boolean....143

Number....143

Object....144

Array....144

null....145

Decoding JSON....146

Decoding JSON to a struct....147

Decoding JSON to arrays....148

Decoding embedded objects....149

Mapping custom attribute names....152

Mapping unstructured data....153

Encoding JSON....156

Encoding structs to JSON....156

Encoding interfaces to JSON....160

Chapter 10 Defining Method Signatures Using Interfaces....163

Working with Interfaces in Go....164

Defining an interface....164

Implementing an interface....165

Looking at How You May Use Interfaces....166

Adding methods to a type that doesn’t satisfy an interface....170

Using the Stringer interface....171

Implementing multiple interfaces....172

Using an empty interface....173

Determining whether a value implements a specific interface....174

Part 3 Multitasking in Go....175

Chapter 11 Threading Using Goroutines....177

Understanding Goroutines....178

Using Goroutines with Shared Resources....180

Seeing how shared resources impact goroutines....180

Accessing shared resources using mutual exclusion....183

Using atomic counters for modifying shared resources....184

Synchronizing Goroutines....186

Chapter 12 Communicating between Goroutines Using Channels....191

Understanding Channels....191

How channels work....192

How channels are used....195

Iterating through Channels....198

Asynchronously Waiting on Channels....199

Using Buffered Channels....204

Part 4 Organizing Your Code....207

Chapter 13 Using and Creating Packages in Go....209

Working with Packages....209

Creating shareable packages....212

Organizing packages using directories....214

Using Third-Party Packages....216

Emojis for Go....216

Go Documentation....217

Chapter 14 Grouping Packages into Modules....223

Creating a Module....223

Testing and Building a Module....226

Publishing a Module on GitHub....228

Part 5 Seeing Go in Action....235

Chapter 15 Consuming Web APIs Using Go....237

Understanding Web APIs....237

Fetching Data from Web Services in Go....238

Writing a Go program to connect to a web API....239

Decoding JSON data....241

Refactoring the code for decoding JSON data....245

Fetching from multiple web services at the same time....250

Returning Goroutine’s results to the main() function....251

Chapter 16 Getting Ready to Serve Using REST APIs....255

Building Web Services Using REST APIs....255

HTTP messages....256

REST URLs....256

REST methods....258

REST response....260

Creating a REST API in Go....261

Getting your REST API up and running....261

Testing the REST API....263

Registering additional paths....263

Passing in query string....266

Specifying request methods....267

Storing the course information on the REST API....269

Testing the REST API again....279

Chapter 17 Working with Databases....283

Setting Up a MySQL Database Server....284

Interfacing with the MySQL server....284

Creating a database and table....286

Creating a new account and granting permission....287

Connecting to the MySQL Database in Go....288

Retrieving a record....290

Adding a record....292

Modifying a record....293

Deleting a record....295

Part 6 The Part of Tens....297

Chapter 18 Ten Useful Go Packages to Create Applications....299

color....299

Installation....300

Code sample....300

now....300

Installation....300

Code sample....300

go-pushbullet....301

Installation....301

Code sample....301

goid....302

Installation....302

Code sample....302

json2go....303

Installation....303

Code sample....303

gojq....304

Installation....305

Code sample....305

turtle....306

Installation....306

Code sample....306

go-http-client....307

Installation....307

Code sample....307

notify....308

Installation....308

Code sample....308

gosx-notifier....309

Installation....309

Code sample....309

Chapter 19 Ten Great Go Resources....311

The Official Go Website....311

Go by Example....312

A Tour of Go....312

The Go Frequently Asked Questions....312

The Go Playground....312

Go Bootcamp....313

Effective Go....313

Gophercises....313

Tutorialspoint....313

Stack Overflow....314

Index....315

EULA....339

Now is the perfect time to learn the Go Programming Language. It’s one of the most in-demand languages among tech recruiters and developers love its simplicity and power. Go Programming Language For Dummies is an easy way to add this top job skill to your toolkit. Written for novice and experienced coders alike, this book traverses basic syntax, writing functions, organizing data, building packages, and interfacing with APIs. 

Go―or GoLang, as it’s also known―has proven to be a strong choice for developers creating applications for the cloud-based world we live in. This book will put you on the path to using the language that’s created some of  today’s leading web applications, so you can steer your career where you want to Go! 

• Learn how Go works and start writing programs and modules
• Install and implement the most powerful third-party Go packages
• Use Go in conjunction with web services and MySQL databases
• Keep your codebase organized and use Go to structure data 

With this book, you can join the growing numbers of developers using Go to create 21st century solutions. Step inside to take start writing code that puts data in users’ hands.