Go Slices: Difference between revisions
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A slice contains a pointer to the underlying array, a length and a capacity. More details available in the [[#Structure|structure]] section. A slice, once initialized, is always associated with the underlaying array that holds its elements. The slice shares storage with its array, and other slices of the same array. A distinct slice that shares the underlying array with an original slice can be created by slicing the original slice with a [[Go_Slice_Expressions#Overview|slice expression]]. | A slice contains a pointer to the underlying array, a length and a capacity. More details available in the [[#Structure|structure]] section. A slice, once initialized, is always associated with the underlaying array that holds its elements. The slice shares storage with its array, and other slices of the same array. A distinct slice that shares the underlying array with an original slice can be created by slicing the original slice with a [[Go_Slice_Expressions#Overview|slice expression]]. | ||
=Structure= | =Structure= | ||
Revision as of 00:49, 19 August 2024
External
Internal
Overview
A slice is a descriptor, or a header, for a contiguous segment of an underlying array, stored separately from the slice variable, and provides access to a numbered sequence of elements from that array. A slice type denotes the set of all slices of arrays of its element type. The slice was used to be referred to as a reference type, but not anymore, "reference type" terminology was removed from Go documentation.
A slice contains a pointer to the underlying array, a length and a capacity. More details available in the structure section. A slice, once initialized, is always associated with the underlaying array that holds its elements. The slice shares storage with its array, and other slices of the same array. A distinct slice that shares the underlying array with an original slice can be created by slicing the original slice with a slice expression.
Structure
Under the covers, a slice is a structure that contains:
- a pointer to the first element of the slice, as stored in the underlying array.
- an integer length of the slice.
Slices and Pass-by-Value
When the slice is passed as a function argument, the structure is copied on the function's stack, so both the function argument slice, and the