Go: Channels explained

A channel is a mechanism for goroutines to synchronize execution and communicate by passing values.

The <- operator specifies the channel direction, send or receive. If no direction is given, the channel is bi-directional.

// can only be used to send float64s
chan<- float64

// can only be used to receive ints
<-chan int

// can be used to send and receive values of type Sushi
chan Sushi

A new channel value can be made using the built-in function make:

// unbuffered channel of ints
ic := make(chan int)

// buffered channel with room for 10 elements
wc := make(chan *Work, 10)

To send a value on a channel, use <- as a binary operator.

To receive a value on a channel, use it as a unary operator.

ic <- 3      // Send 3 on the channel.
work := <-wc // Receive a pointer to Work from the channel.

Buffered and unbuffered channels

• If the capacity of a channel is zero or absent, the channel is unbuffered and the sender blocks until the receiver has received the value.

• If the channel has a buffer, the sender blocks only until the value has been copied to the buffer; if the buffer is full, this means waiting until some receiver has retrieved a value.

• Receivers always block until there is data to receive.

• Sending or receiving from a nil channel blocks forever.

Closing a channel

The close function records that no more values will be sent on a channel. (Sending to or closing a closed channel causes a run-time panic. Closing a nil channel also causes a run-time panic.)

After calling close, and after any previously sent values have been received, receive operations will return a zero value without blocking. A multi-valued receive operation additionally returns an indication of whether the channel is closed.

ch := make(chan string)
go func() {
        ch <- "Hello!"
        close(ch)
}()

fmt.Println(<-ch) // Print "Hello!".
fmt.Println(<-ch) // Print the zero value "" without blocking.
fmt.Println(<-ch) // Once again print "".
v, ok := <-ch     // v is "", ok is false.

// Receive values from ch until closed.
for v := range ch {
        fmt.Println(v) // Will not be executed.
}

Note that it is only necessary to close a channel if a receiver is looking for a close.

Example

In the following example we let the Publish function return a channel, which is used to broadcast a message when the text has been published.

// Publish prints text to stdout after the given time has expired.
// It closes the wait channel when the text has been published.
func Publish(text string, delay time.Duration) (wait <-chan struct{}) {
        ch := make(chan struct{})
        go func() {
                time.Sleep(delay)
                fmt.Println(text)
                close(ch)
        }()
        return ch
}

Notice that we use a channel of empty structs to indicate that the channel will only be used for signalling, not for passing data.

This is how you might use this function.

wait := Publish("important news", 2 * time.Minute)
// Do some more work.
<-wait // Block until the text has been published.

Deadlock

If you remove the call to close from the example above, the goroutine started by the Publish function will print the news and leave the code in the other goroutine waiting forever. This condition is known as a deadlock.

Go has a mechanism for detecting deadlocks.