About Golang Functions - Function Values / Callback Functions / Anonymous Functions

This article was originally published on bmf-tech.com.

Overview

In Golang functions, we will summarize the following three points.

• Functions treated as function values
• Functions that take other functions as arguments
• Definition of anonymous functions
  • Function values
  • Closures

Functions Treated as Function Values

package main

import (
  "fmt"
  "testing"
)

func sayHi() string {
  return "Hello"
}

func main() {
  greetA := sayHi()
  greetB := sayHi

  fmt.Println(greetA)
  fmt.Println(greetB())
}

Callback Functions

package main

import "fmt"

// Callback function
func add(n int) int {
    return n
}

func sum(v int, r func(int) int) int {
  return r(v)
}

func main() {
  fmt.Println(sum(1, add))
}

The function sum defines two arguments:

• v of type int
• r, which is a function that takes an int as an argument and returns an int
  • When defining a callback function as an argument, it is necessary to specify the return type even if it is an argument.

By the way, the add function being executed in the main function has its address stored.

fmt.Println("%v", add) // 0x10936d0

In PHP, callbacks were implemented using variable variables or call_user_func.

Definition of Anonymous Functions

Function Values

Example of treating an anonymous function as a function value

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
  sum := func (n int) int {
    return n + 1
  }

  fmt.Println(sum(1))
}

Closures

Example of defining an anonymous function as a closure

package main

import "fmt"

func count() func() int {
  var count int
  return func() int {
    count++
    return count
  }
}

func main() {
  countUp := count()
  fmt.Println(countUp()) // 1
  fmt.Println(countUp()) // 2
  fmt.Println(countUp()) // 3
}

Using closures allows the scope to remain open, so the value of count can be retained.

Thoughts

I feel like I have been using callback functions without fully understanding them, so I want to delve deeper into how callback functions work.