Go Learning Notes - Part 2: Array, Slices, Loops & String Processing

Source: Dev.to

Arrays (Fixed Size Collections)

An array in Go has a fixed size.

var numbers [3]int = [3]int{10, 20, 30}

If I used an array for bookings, it would look like this:

var bookings [50]string

Limitations

• The size is fixed
• Harder to manage dynamic data

That’s why slices are usually preferred.

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Slices (Dynamic Collections)

Instead of using a fixed array, I used a slice to store bookings:

bookings := []string{}

Every time a user books:

bookings = append(bookings, fName+" "+lName)

What I Learned

• Slices don’t have a fixed size
• append() adds new elements
• Slices are the most common way to manage lists in Go

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Infinite Loop

I wrapped the booking logic inside an infinite loop:

for {
    // booking logic here
}

Why use it?

• Allows multiple users to book tickets continuously
• The program keeps running until manually stopped

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Looping with range (For‑Each)

To extract first names from all bookings:

for _, booking := range bookings {
    name := strings.Fields(booking)
    firstNames = append(firstNames, name[0])
}

What range Does

• Iterates over slices (and other collections)
• Returns both index and value (the index can be ignored)
• Makes looping clean and simple

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Blank Identifier (_)

In the loop:

for _, booking := range bookings {
    // ...
}

• The _ ignores the index value
• Prevents “unused variable” errors

This is called the blank identifier in Go.

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strings.Fields()

name := strings.Fields(booking)

What It Does

• Splits a string into a slice of words, using spaces as separators

Example

"Kervie Jay", "Kurt John"

Becomes:

[]string{"Kervie", "Jay"}   // and []string{"Kurt", "John"}

Extracting the first name:

firstName := name[0]

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Using uint

var remainingTickets uint = 50
var userTickets uint

What I Learned

• uint is an unsigned integer (cannot be negative)
• Ideal for values like ticket counts where negative numbers don’t make sense