Generic functions

A generic function is a function template that takes types as parameters. The generic function must compile for all possible type assignments of its arguments. The types a generic function can accept are described by “type constraints.” We will learn about these concepts in this section.

Writing a generic function that adds numbers

A good introductory example for illustrating generics is a function that adds numbers. These numbers can be various types of integers or floating-point numbers. Here, we will study several recipes with different capabilities.

How to do it...

A generic summation function that accepts int and float64 numbers is as follows:

func Sum[T int | float64](values ...T) T {
  var result T
  for _, x := range values {
    result += x
  }
  return result
}

The construct [T int | float64] defines the type parameter for the Sum function:

• T is the type name...