Golang : When to use make or new?
Problem :
When to use make
or new
in Golang ? It can be confusing for newbie to Golang.
Solution :
In the simplest example that I can think of....
- Imagine
new
as someone that creates an empty box and points the direction(pointer or address) of the empty box to you. - and
make
as someone that creates a box filled with values that defined by you and pass the non-empty box to you....not pointer or address.
Use new
when you want to :
- create a new file and save data to the the NEW file
- create or allocate a new buffer for you to store some data, manipulate the buffer and then flush the data to somewhere else such as a pipe.
Use make
when you want to :
- use maps, slices and channels and want to manipulate the data in them directly instead of a pointer or address.
- pre-fill the maps, slices and channels with initial values.
- specify the size or increase/decrease the size of maps or slices during runtime.
Remember...the rule of the thumb is
new
= empty box with pointermake
= filled box without pointer
Hope this simple tutorial can be useful to you. Happy coding!
Reference :
By Adam Ng
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