Recover

Go provides us with the ability to regain control after panic has occurred. Recover is a function that is used to regain control of a panicking Goroutine.

The signature of the recover() function is as follows:

func recover() interface{}

The recover() function accepts no arguments and returns an empty interface{}. For now, an empty interface{} indicates that any type can be returned. The recover() function will return the value sent to the panic() function.

The recover() function is only useful inside a deferred function. As you may recall, a deferred function gets executed before the encompassing function terminates. Executing a call to the recover() function inside a deferred function stops the panicking by restoring normal execution. If the recover() function is called outside a deferred function, it will not stop the panicking.

The following diagram shows the steps a program would take when using panic(), recover(), and a defer() function:

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