Tips for Golfing in Go

Question

What general tips do you have for golfing in Go? I'm new to Code Golfing and looking for ideas that can be applied to code golf problems in general that are at least somewhat specific to Go.

Please keep to one tip per answer.

Answer 1

_{Inspired by @EMBLEM's answer here.}

You can put a package's functions in the global namespace when you import them like so:

package main

import ."fmt"

func main() {
    Printf("Hello World!")
}

Answer 2

You can name packages whatever you like when you import them.

package main

import f "fmt"

func main() {
    f.Printf("Hello World\n")
}

Learned this here.

Answer 3

Named return values can save a few bytes. For example:

func x()string{
r:="" //Do stuff
return r}

You can save 3 bytes with

func x()(r string){
//Do stuff
return}

It's more useful if you need to declare multiple variables at the start of your function.

Answer 4

If you need to compare many different values to a single one, it may be more space-efficient to use a switch with a single case.

if x==1||x==2||x==3||x==4{}
switch x{case 1,2,3,4:}

Answer 5

Go compiler has predefined print and println functions that don't require importing fmt, so instead of this.

package main
import."fmt"
func main(){Printf(`Hello World
`)}

You can write this.

package main
func main(){print(`Hello World
`)}

Note that this outputs to STDERR.

Answer 6

Declaring Multiple Variables:

i,s:=0,""

var(i int;s string)

Int From String Conversion: (limited but sometimes helpful)

n:=byte("9"[0])-48 // actual type is uint8

n,_:=strconv.Atoi("9")

And Vice Versa

s:=string(9+48)

s:=strconv.Itoa(9)

Answer 7

Go has different operator precedence for bit operations, <<, >>, &, etc. usually have lower precedence than + and - in most languages, but in Go they have the same precedence as * and /.

Precedence    Operator
5             *  /  %  <<  >>  &  &^
4             +  -  |  ^
3             ==  !=  <  <=  >  >=
2             &&
1             ||

This could be used to save some parentheses.

Most languages:

(a&b)*c

Go:

a&b*c

Answer 8

A lot of stuff in the for range loop is optional.

Standard version:

for i,v:=range a{
// Do stuff
}

If i, v has already been defined and can be overwritten:

for i,v=range a{
// Do stuff
}

If you don't care about value:

for i:=range a{
// Do stuff
}

If you don't care about value and i has already been defined:

for i=range a{
// Do stuff
}

If you don't care about index or value:

for range a{
// Do stuff
}

If you want an infinite loop:

for{
// Do stuff
}

Answer 9

Need a string to contain a newline? Don't write \n, create a raw string with backquotes and put a literal newline in it.

s:="\n" // 7 bytes
s:=`
` // 6 bytes

Answer 10

Make full use of Go's first-class functions by assigning long library function names to one-letter variables.

import."strings"
r:=Replace

Answer 11

You can put any number of opening braces on one line, but a line that contains opening braces may contain at most one closing brace.

Correct:

func main(){if true{switch{case 1==1:for{break
}}}}

Also correct:

func main(){if true{switch{case 1==1:for{break}
}}}

Also correct:

func main(){if true{switch{case 1==1:for{
break}}}}

Incorrect:

func main() {
    if true{for{break}}
}