What is the meaning of '*' and '&'?

Question

I am doing the http://tour.golang.org/. Could anyone explain me lines 1,3,5 and 7 this function especially what \'*\' and \'&\' do? I mean by mentioning the

Answer 1

Your question doesn't match very well the example given but I'll try to be straightforward.

Let's suppose we have a variable named a which holds the integer 5 and another variable named p which is going to be a pointer. This is where the * and & come into the game.

Printing variables with them can generate different output, so it all depends on the situation and how well you use. The use of * and & can save you lines of code (that doesn't really matter in small projects) and make your code more beautiful/readable.

& returns the memory address of the following variable.

* returns the value of the following variable (which should hold the memory address of a variable, unless you want to get weird output and possibly problems because you're accessing your computer's RAM)

var a = 5
var p = &a // p holds variable a's memory address
fmt.Printf("Address of var a: %p\n", p)
fmt.Printf("Value of var a: %v\n", *p)

// Let's change a value (using the initial variable or the pointer)
*p = 3 // using pointer
a = 3 // using initial var

fmt.Printf("Address of var a: %p\n", p)
fmt.Printf("Value of var a: %v\n", *p)

All in all, when using * and & in remember that * is for setting the value of the variable you're pointing to and & is the address of the variable you're pointing to/want to point to.

Hope this answer helps.