GO Tutorial

Pointers in Go

Pointers store the memory address of a variable instead of its value. They allow you to directly manipulate the data stored in memory — a powerful feature in Go for performance and flexibility.

var x int = 42
var p *int = &x  // p stores address of x

fmt.Println(x)   // 42
fmt.Println(p)   // memory address of x
fmt.Println(*p)  // 42 (value at address p)
    

func main() {
    x := 10
    fmt.Println("Before:", x)

    increment(&x)  // pass pointer to x
    
    fmt.Println("After:", x)
}

func increment(num *int) {
    *num = *num + 5  // dereference and increment
}
  

Explanation: By passing a pointer to x, the increment function directly modifies x’s value in memory. This is efficient and useful for changing variables outside the function scope.