Golang : Null and nil value

Programmers coming from different programming languages to Golang might wonder how does one deal with NULL values. I put down these reminders below about NULL value for myself and maybe this can be useful to you as well.

Here you go :

1. Golang does not support NULL.

2. Nil is the equivalent of NULL in Golang.

3. All variables by default are initiated with the nil(zero) value.

4. Example usage of nil :

     correctHash := sha1.New()
     fmt.Printf("%x \n", correctHash.Sum(nil))
   

5. Function returning nil will NOT compile,

     // not OK
     func getName() string {
    return nil 
     }
   

   but returning nil to a pointer or reference (such as a struct) is ok and will compile.

     type Person struct {
    name string
     }
   
     // OK
     func getName() *Person {
    return nil 
     }