Golang : Clone with pointer and modify value

For those familiar with C language and learning Golang, bear in mind that Golang supports pointer. In this short tutorial, we will learn how to create a struct tied to pointer, how to clone and manipulated the struct data with the pointer(second := *first ).

The code example below should be self explanatory. Should you have any question, please leave a comment below.

 package main

 import (
  "fmt"
 )

 type User struct {
  Id int
  Name string
 }

 func createUser() *User {
  newUser := new(User)
  newUser.Id = 1
  newUser.Name = "Adam"
  return newUser
 }

 func main() {
  // create our first user
  first := createUser()

  fmt.Printf("first user id is %d and name is %s\n", first.Id, first.Name)

  // clone first user to second user
  second := *first

  // data are cloned as well
  fmt.Printf("second user id is %d and name is %s\n", second.Id, second.Name)

  // now modify second user's name and id
  second.Id = 2
  second.Name = "Victoria"

  fmt.Printf("[modified] second user id is %d and name is %s\n", second.Id, second.Name)

 }

Output :

first user id is 1 and name is Adam

second user id is 1 and name is Adam

[modified] second user id is 2 and name is Victoria