Pointer Type variables in Go

 Pointer Type variables

Pointer variables holds the address of memory that holds the value of the variable

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {

    var name *string

    fmt.Println(name)

}

<nil> is go's terminology for an empty pointer object.

De-Referencing a pointer

As given below fmt.Println(*name) is de-referencing a pointer.

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {

    var name *string = new(string)

    *name = "Madhu"

    fmt.Println(*name)

}

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {

    name := "Madhu"

    deRef := &name

    fmt.Println(deRef, *deRef)

    name = "Tomy"

    fmt.Println(deRef, *deRef)

}

Here the name stores the value "Madhu", the variable deRef stores the address of the variable name or it is a pointer variable.

Now I change the value of name, the value of deRef variable also changes automatically.