There is a way to declare a variable without explicitly stating its type using the short declaration :=
operator. We might use the :=
operator if we know what value we want our variable to store when creating it. For instance:
nuclearMeltdownOccurring := true radiumInGroundWater := 4.521 daysSinceLastWorkplaceCatastrophe := 0 externalMessage := "Everything is normal. Keep calm and carry on."
Above, we were able to define a bool
, a float
, an int
, and a string
without specifying the type. We used the :=
to create a variable and infer its type based on the value provided. Floats created in this way are of type float64
. Integers created in this way are either int32
or int64
(we’ll discuss how this is determined in the next exercise).
Go also offers a separate syntax to declare a variable and infer its type. We could’ve written the same code from above as:
var nuclearMeltdownOccurring = true var radiumInGroundWater = 4.521 var daysSinceLastWorkplaceCatastrophe = 0 var externalMessage = "Everything is normal. Keep calm and carry on."
Notice, in the second example, that we used the var
keyword and the =
operator. In both examples, we’ve declared and initialized variables while leaving the Go compiler to infer the type of the value assigned.
Instructions
Create an integer called daysOnVacation
using the :=
operator and assign it a number between 0 to 9.
Create another integer called hoursInDay
with a value of 24
, this time using var
and =
.