Pass an Array to a Function in Golang

In programming, to make the code more modular, usable, and readable we break the code into different functions. For example, we have to sort some set of numbers for which we will create a separate function. For this, we have a data structure called arrays in programming that is nothing but a collection of multiple values of the same type. Once the array of numbers is sorted then at the end of that function we have to return the sorted elements so in this article we will see how to return the array.

Syntax

The syntax to declare a function with an array as a parameter is.

func functionName(arrayVariableName [sizeOfArray]datatype) returnType {
	// logic
}	

Algorithm

• Step 1: var array [2]string ? Declare the array of string type with size 2.

• Step 2: array[0] = "John" ? Initialize both the indexes of the array.

• Step 3: printInAlphabeticalorder(array) ? Call the function to which we are passing the array as an argument.

• if strings.Compare(array[0], array[1]) == 1 {} ? Start the if condition to compare both strings and print them in the if else condition.

• Step 4: Print the result in alphabetical order in the called function.

Example

In this example, we are going to create an array of size two, datatype string and then print the strings in that array in alphabetical order by passing the array to a function.

package main

import (
    // fmt package provides the function to print anything
    "fmt"
    // strings package has functions related to string
    "strings"
)

// array is the argument in this function
func printInAlphabeticalorder(array [2]string) {
    fmt.Println("Printing strings in alphabetical order.")

    // comparing both the string and printing the
    // one first that comes first in alphabetical order
    if strings.Compare(array[0], array[1]) == 1 {
        fmt.Printf("%s %s\n", array[0], array[1])
    } else {
        fmt.Printf("%s %s\n", array[1], array[0])
    }

}

func main() {
    // declaring the array of type string with size 5
    var array [2]string

    // initializing all the indexes of an array
    array[0] = "John"
    array[1] = "Andrew"

    fmt.Println("Golang program to pass array in an argument.")
    // passing argument in the function
    printInAlphabeticalorder(array)

}

Output

Golang program to pass array in an argument.
Printing strings in alphabetical order.
John Andrew

Algorithm

• Step 1: var array [5]int ? Declare the array of integers type with size 5.

• Step 2: array[0] = 5 ?.? Initialize all the indexes of the array.

• Step 3: printInSumOfArray(array) ? Call the function which is passing the array as an argument.

• var sum int / sum = 0 ? The function first initializes and declares the number.

• for i := 0; i < len(array); i++ { } ? Running a loop to find the sum of all numbers in the array.

• Step 4: Print the result in alphabetical order in the called function.

Example

In this example, we are going to create an array of size 5, data type int, and then find the sum of all the numbers in the array by passing the array to a function.

package main

import (
    // fmt package provides the function to print anything
    "fmt"
)

// array is the argument in this function
func printInSumOfArray(array [5]int) {
    fmt.Println("Printing the sum of all the numbers in the array.")
    // declaring the variable sum of int type int to store the sum
    // of all the numbers in the array
    var sum int

    // initializing the variable sum with 0
    sum = 0

    // running a for loop over the array
    for i := 0; i < len(array); i++ {
        // adding current index number of array in sum
        sum = sum + array[i]
    }

    fmt.Printf("The sum of all the numbers in the array is %d.\n", sum)
}

func main() {
    // declaring the array of type string with size 5
    var array [5]int

    // initializing all the indexes of an array
    array[0] = 5
    array[1] = 59
    array[2] = 43
    array[3] = 12
    array[4] = 98

    fmt.Println("Golang program to pass array in argument.")
    // passing argument in the function
    printInSumOfArray(array)

}

Output

Golang program to pass array in an argument.
Printing the sum of all the numbers in the array.
The sum of all the numbers in the array is 217.

Conclusion

These are the two examples of passing an array to the function where in the first one we have passed an array of type strings and print the values in alphabetical order. In the second one, we passed an array of type integers and printed the sum of all the numbers in the array. To learn more about Go you can explore these tutorials.