Difference between := and = operators in Go

Question

What is the difference between the = and := operators, and what are the use cases for them? They both seem to be for an assignment?

Answer 1

:= is a short-hand for declaration.

a := 10
b := "gopher"

a will be declared as an int and initialized with value 10 where as b will be declared as a string and initialized with value gopher.

Their equivalents using = would be

var a = 10
var b = "gopher"

= is assignment operator. It is used the same way you would use it in any other language.

You can omit the type when you declare the variable and an initializer is present (http://tour.golang.org/#11).