Introduction to Go Training

Intro to Go (golang) is designed to get existing software teams with little to no Go experience ready to write production ready code. It focuses on the common mistakes that developers new to Go are likely to make, and ensures that they have practical knowledge to be productive in their day to day efforts.

Length

5 days. Each day is 4 hours long including a 15 minute break.

Class Size

Our classes are priced for small and large classes. We offer classes starting at only five students, up to 100 students. We recognize that each company has specific needs and budgets.

For pricing, fill out our contact us form and you'll receive an automated reply with our current rates.

Target Audience

  • You have little to no Go experience.
  • You have a current or upcoming project that will be written in Go.

Prerequisites

  • Familiarity and comfort navigating and basic file manipulation at the command line.
  • Familiarity and comfort with a modern code editor, including creating and modifying files and projects.
  • You have at least 6 months of experience with other modern development languages such as Java, C#, Swift, JavaScript, Python, Rust, etc.
  • Familiarity with basic programming concepts and structures such as variables, loops, conditionals, etc.
  • Computers should be capable of modern software development, such as access to install and run binaries, install a code editor, etc. Full instructions referenced here: preparing your environment for Go development. It may be necessary for them to have root/admin access to their computer.

Recommended Preparation

  • Install and configure an editor for Go.
  • Sign up for a Github account if you don't already have one.

Suggested Followup Learning

Expected Outcomes

  • Students will be able read and understand Go syntax.
  • Students will be able to spot common coding pitfalls in Go and correct them.
  • Students will understand the internals of Slices and how to use them properly.
  • Students will understand how to write idiomatic Go using core principles such as embedding and interfaces.
  • Students will have a strong understanding of concurrency and how to apply it to their projects.
  • Students will understand how to create proper tests, including table tests.

Course Details

Day One

Welcome

This chapter covers general information about your instructor and course materials.

Syntax And Types

In this chapter we will cover the fundamentals of the Go programming language. We will cover the keywords, operators, and delimiters that make up the language, as well as the proper idioms to declare and structure your code. We will also cover data structures (structs) as well as how Go handles default values (zero value). An overview of how strings work in Go, how UTF-8 is handled, and the different types of string literals will also be covered.

Finally, we will learn how to properly declare variables, constants, and how to use iota in Go.

Arrays And Iteration

Arrays in Go are useful when planning for detailed layout of memory. Using arrays can sometimes help avoid allocation. However, their primary use is for the building blocks of slices.

This chapter will cover the basics of creating, initializing, and indexing an array. It will also cover basic loop constructs and loop control basics.

Break

Tea/Coffee Break.

Slices

Slices wrap arrays in Go, and provide a more general, powerful, and convenient interface to data sequences. In this chapter, you will cover slice basics such as creating, initializing, and iteration. You will also learn how to grow a slice, work with subsets of slices, and slice tricks.

Maps

Maps are a powerful built-in data structure that associates keys and values. In this chapter you will cover basic map creation, initialization, and iteration. You will discover how to determine if values exist in maps and how to update and delete map values.

Day Two

Pointers

A pointer is a type that holds the address to the value of a variable. In this chapter we will learn about the difference between pass by value and pass by reference. We will also learn how to declare pointers, and how to reference values as pointers. The chapter will discuss performance and security and when to use pointers as well.

Break

Tea/Coffee Break.

Functions

Functions in Go are a primitive type. This chapter will cover how to declare and call functions. We will also cover how to send zero or many arguments, as well as receive zero or many arguments. Additionally, concepts such as defer, init, closures, and methods will also be discussed.

Day Three

Interfaces

Interfaces in Go provide a way to specify the behavior of an object: If something can do this, then it can be used here. This chapter will take a look at how to use interfaces to abstract that behavior. Concepts such as the Empty Interface, satisfying multiple interfaces, and asserting for behavior will be covered. Additionally, this chapter will cover the difference between value and pointer receivers and how they affect the ability to satisfy an interface.

Break

Tea/Coffee Break.

Embedding And Composition

Go does not provide the typical type-driven notion of subclassing. However, it does have the ability to “borrow” pieces of an implementation by embedding types within a struct or interface. This chapter will cover how promotion from embedding works as well how collision and overriding are handled. We will also walk through how to embed types to be able to satisfy a specific interface.

Day Four

Errors

Error handling in Go can feel a bit tedious at first. However, this chapter will cover the benefits of how Go's error model results in more reliable code. This chapter will also cover how to handle basic errors and return errors as an interface that satisfies the error type. Concepts such as custom error types, panics, recovering from panics, and sentinel errors are also covered.

Concurrency

Concurrent programming in many environments is made difficult by the subtleties required to implement correct access to shared variables. Go encourages a different approach in which shared values are passed around on channels and, in fact, never actively shared by separate threads of execution.

This chapter will cover concurrency as it pertains to Go, what goroutines are, as well as a basic overview of the scheduler and terminology used.

Break

Tea/Coffee Break.

Concurrency With The Sync Package

This chapter covers goroutines and how to synchronize communication between them. Mechanics for synchronization such as WaitGroups and Mutexes are explored along with the corresponding patterns for each. Additionallywe will cover how to spot common concurrency bugs and tools used to debug them.

Day Five

Concurrency With Channels

Channels are a conduit in Go used to communicate between goroutines. This chapter covers basic channel usage along with the corresponding patterns for each. Find out the difference between a buffered and unbuffered channel, and when to use them. Also discover how to use channels for signaling for concepts such as graceful application shutdown. Finally, learn how to spot common concurrency pitfalls and how to properly structure your concurrent code for to avoid them.

Break

Tea/Coffee Break.

Context

Package context defines the Context type, which carries deadlines, cancelation signals, and other request-scoped values across API boundaries and between processes. Context is used for controlling concurrent subsystems in your application. This chapter will cover the different kinds of behavior with contexts including canceling, timeouts, and values.

Finalize

This chapter covers where to get more support on Go, recommends books and videos, and list the contact information for our instructors.

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