Programming language · Since 2009

Go

Go is a simple, statically typed language designed at Google, known for fast builds and goroutine-based concurrency in servers and cloud tooling.

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Go (often called Golang) is an open-source programming language designed by engineers at Google and released publicly in 2009. It is statically typed and garbage-collected, yet keeps a small, deliberately simple syntax so that unfamiliar code stays easy to read.

Go shines where software has to handle many things at once and be easy to deploy: network servers, web APIs, command-line tools and cloud infrastructure. Goroutines and channels express concurrency, programs compile to a single self-contained binary, and widely used tools such as Docker and Kubernetes are written in Go.

To get started, install Go from go.dev and work through A Tour of Go, which runs right in your browser. Once the basics feel comfortable, read Effective Go to learn idiomatic style and use pkg.go.dev to browse the standard library and third-party packages.

Highlights

Simple syntax

A small set of keywords and a deliberately limited feature set make Go quick to learn and keep code consistent across teams.

Goroutines and channels

Lightweight goroutines run work concurrently, and channels pass data between them, making concurrent programs comparatively straightforward.

Fast builds, single binaries

Compilation is fast and produces one executable; changing two environment variables cross-compiles for another OS and architecture.

Batteries-included tooling

The standard library covers HTTP, JSON, cryptography and more, and the go command bundles formatting, testing and module management.

Where it is used

Web servers and REST or gRPC APIs
Cloud infrastructure and container tooling
Command-line (CLI) tools
Network services and DevOps automation

Install

1
Install Go
Download the installer or archive for Windows, macOS or Linux from go.dev/dl. A package manager such as winget, Homebrew or your distribution's packages works too.
2
Verify the installation
Open a new terminal and check that the go command is on your PATH and reports its version.
```
go version
```
3
Create a module
Make a project folder and initialize a module inside it; this creates the go.mod file that tracks dependencies.
```
go mod init example.com/hello
```

Your first program

Your first Go program

Every executable program starts in the main function of package main. It imports the standard fmt package and prints a line with Println; go run compiles the file and runs it immediately.

main.go

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
	fmt.Println("Hello, world!")
}

go run main.go

Everyday tools

go build: Compiles packages and their dependencies into an executable; set GOOS and GOARCH to cross-compile.
go test: The built-in test runner for tests and benchmarks in _test.go files.
gofmt: Formats Go code in the standard style automatically, ending debates about layout.
gopls: The official Go language server, providing completion, go-to-definition and refactoring in editors.

Step-by-step guide

Six chapters that take you from installation to the core ideas of Go.

Official docs and resources

Discussions

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