Go #5 - Receiver Functions in Go

Receiver Functions:

Function Receiver sets a method on variables we create.

syntax:

func(t type) functionName() {}

code:

employee.go

package employee

import "fmt"

// Employee struct
type employee struct {
 name   string
 age    int
 salary int
}

// constructor
func NewEmployee(name string, age int, salary int) *employee {
 return &employee{
  name:   name,
  age:    age,
  salary: salary,
 }
}

// print employee
func (e employee) ToString() {
 fmt.Printf("%s is %d years old with salary %d \n", e.name, e.age, e.salary)
}

- Notice the ToString() method in employee.go, it is the receiver's function for employee type
- So any new variable of type employee will have access to the 'ToString()' method

main.go

package main

import "trygo/employee"

func main() {
 rake := employee.NewEmployee("Rake", 13, 4566)
 rake.ToString()
}

- Calling receiver's function for type employee using rake.ToString()

output:

~/projects/go/src/trygo$ go run main.go
Rakesh is 13 years old with salary 4566

- The usage of receiver's function is best seen when we use interfaces in Go. I'll visit this in more detail when i write about interfaces in future. For now here's a quick sneak peak of the concept

When you use receiver function along with an interface, it is that at the time of the call, the receiver is an interface and the function to be called is determined dynamically

 Happy Coding 🤖