Go pointers

q Why do we need pointers?

Go has pointers. Pointer holds the memory address of a value.

The type *T is a pointer to a T value. Its zero value is nil.

var p *int

The & operator generates a pointer to its operand.

i := 42
p = &i

The * operator denotes the pointer’s underlying value.

fmt.Println(*p) // read i through the pointer p
*p = 21         // set i through the pointer p

This is known as dereferencing.

Go has no pointer arithmetic, unlike C.