Go Data Types

Data types play an important role in determining what type of data will be kept in computer memory for programming purposes. This tutorial will give you an understanding of data types in Go programming.

What Are Data Types in Go Programming?

Go data types are a fundamental component determining the size and type of variables that store program values. Go is a statically-typed language, meaning once the data type of a variable gets defined, it can only store data of that type.

Let us now explore the Pre-defined data types in detail.

Go Integer Data Types

Integer data types can store whole numbers with a specific range of values, e.g., 50, -35,  123450, etc. It can be signed and unsigned, where signed integers can hold positive and negative values, while unsigned integers can only hold non-negative values.

Example Program:

/* Author: w3schools.in
Date: 2022-12-13
Description: Example "go program" to print integer */

package main
import "fmt"

func main() {
    var n int = 23
    fmt.Println("The Integer value is ", n)
}

Output:

The Integer value is 23

Unless there is a specific need in the program, the int keyword is typically used by default to create integers.

Go Floating Data Type

The float type is a numeric data type that can store values with decimals and values having mantissa and exponent parts. These data types can also store real and imaginary numbers.

Example Program:

/* Author: w3schools.in
Date: 2022-12-13
Description: Example "go program" to print float */

package main
import "fmt"

func main() {
    var n float32 = 3.1625
    fmt.Println("The Floating point value is ", n)
}

Output:

The Floating point value is 3.1625

Example Program:

/* Author: w3schools.in
Date: 2022-12-13
Description: Example "go program" to print float */

package main
import "fmt"

func main() {
    var g complex128 = complex(8, 3)
    var k complex64 = complex(6, 3)
    fmt.Println(g)
    fmt.Println(k)
    fmt.Printf("The type of first variable is %T and "+ "the type of second variable is %T", g, k)
}

Output:

D:\Go-Example>go run filename.go
(8+3i)
(6+3i)
The type of first variable is complex128 and the type of second variable is complex64

Go String Data Type

String data type represents the set of string values that are characters enclosed with double quotes. The value it holds is a sequence of bytes. Go strings are immutable data types, meaning that once created, their value cannot be changed.

Example Program:

/* Author: w3schools.in
Date: 2022-12-13
Description: Example "go program" to print string */

package main
import "fmt"

func main() {
    var emp_name string = "Alex"
    fmt.Println("The name of the employee as string value is", emp_name)
}

Output:

The name of the employee as string value is Alex

Go Boolean Data Type

The Boolean data type allows a variable to store true or false and has a default value of false.

Example Program:

/* Author: w3schools.in
Date: 2022-12-13
Description: Example "go program" to use boolean */

package main
import "fmt"

func main() {
    var b bool = true //Boolean value can only be true or false
    fmt.Println("The Boolean value is", b)
}

Output:

The Boolean value is true

Boolean values are mainly used in conditional checking.

There are a few other data types, such as:

Go Derived Data Types

Apart from all these basic data types, specific categories of data types are formed from pre-defined data types but have different functionalities. These are:

• Pointer
• Array
• Structure
• Union
• Function
• Slice
• Interface
• Map
• Channel

Since these are separate topics, they are beyond the scope of this tutorial. These are explained in detail in subsequent tutorials.