Menu
×
   ❮   
HTML CSS JAVASCRIPT SQL PYTHON JAVA PHP HOW TO W3.CSS C C++ C# BOOTSTRAP REACT MYSQL JQUERY EXCEL XML DJANGO NUMPY PANDAS NODEJS R TYPESCRIPT ANGULAR GIT POSTGRESQL MONGODB ASP AI GO KOTLIN SASS VUE DSA GEN AI SCIPY AWS CYBERSECURITY DATA SCIENCE
     ❯   

Go Access, Change, Append and Copy Slices


Access Elements of a Slice

You can access a specific slice element by referring to the index number.

In Go, indexes start at 0. That means that [0] is the first element, [1] is the second element, etc.

Example

This example shows how to access the first and third elements in the prices slice:

package main
import ("fmt")

func main() {
  prices := []int{10,20,30}

  fmt.Println(prices[0])
  fmt.Println(prices[2])
}

Result:

10
30
Try it Yourself »

Change Elements of a Slice

You can also change a specific slice element by referring to the index number.

Example

This example shows how to change the third element in the prices slice:

package main
import ("fmt")

func main() {
  prices := []int{10,20,30}
  prices[2] = 50
  fmt.Println(prices[0])
  fmt.Println(prices[2])
}

Result:

10
50
Try it Yourself »

Append Elements To a Slice

You can append elements to the end of a slice using the append()function:

Syntax

slice_name = append(slice_name, element1, element2, ...)

Example

This example shows how to append elements to the end of a slice:

package main
import ("fmt")

func main() {
  myslice1 := []int{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}
  fmt.Printf("myslice1 = %v\n", myslice1)
  fmt.Printf("length = %d\n", len(myslice1))
  fmt.Printf("capacity = %d\n", cap(myslice1))

  myslice1 = append(myslice1, 20, 21)
  fmt.Printf("myslice1 = %v\n", myslice1)
  fmt.Printf("length = %d\n", len(myslice1))
  fmt.Printf("capacity = %d\n", cap(myslice1))
}

Result:

myslice1 = [1 2 3 4 5 6]
length = 6
capacity = 6
myslice1 = [1 2 3 4 5 6 20 21]
length = 8
capacity = 12
Try it Yourself »


Append One Slice To Another Slice

To append all the elements of one slice to another slice, use the append()function:

Syntax

slice3 = append(slice1, slice2...)

Note: The '...' after slice2 is necessary when appending the elements of one slice to another.

Example

This example shows how to append one slice to another slice:

package main
import ("fmt")

func main() {
  myslice1 := []int{1,2,3}
  myslice2 := []int{4,5,6}
  myslice3 := append(myslice1, myslice2...)

  fmt.Printf("myslice3=%v\n", myslice3)
  fmt.Printf("length=%d\n", len(myslice3))
  fmt.Printf("capacity=%d\n", cap(myslice3))
}

Result:

myslice3=[1 2 3 4 5 6]
length=6
capacity=6
Try it Yourself »

Change The Length of a Slice

Unlike arrays, it is possible to change the length of a slice.

Example

This example shows how to change the length of a slice:

package main
import ("fmt")

func main() {
  arr1 := [6]int{9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14} // An array
  myslice1 := arr1[1:5] // Slice array
  fmt.Printf("myslice1 = %v\n", myslice1)
  fmt.Printf("length = %d\n", len(myslice1))
  fmt.Printf("capacity = %d\n", cap(myslice1))

  myslice1 = arr1[1:3] // Change length by re-slicing the array
  fmt.Printf("myslice1 = %v\n", myslice1)
  fmt.Printf("length = %d\n", len(myslice1))
  fmt.Printf("capacity = %d\n", cap(myslice1))

  myslice1 = append(myslice1, 20, 21, 22, 23) // Change length by appending items
  fmt.Printf("myslice1 = %v\n", myslice1)
  fmt.Printf("length = %d\n", len(myslice1))
  fmt.Printf("capacity = %d\n", cap(myslice1))
}

Result:

myslice1 = [10 11 12 13]
length = 4
capacity = 5
myslice1 = [10 11]
length = 2
capacity = 5
myslice1 = [10 11 20 21 22 23]
length = 6
capacity = 10
Try it Yourself »

Memory Efficiency

 When using slices, Go loads all the underlying elements into the memory.

If the array is large and you need only a few elements, it is better to copy those elements using the copy() function.

The copy() function creates a new underlying array with only the required elements for the slice. This will reduce the memory used for the program. 

Syntax

copy(dest, src)

The copy() function takes in two slices dest and src, and copies data from src to dest. It returns the number of elements copied.

Example

This example shows how to use the copy() function:

package main
import ("fmt")

func main() {
  numbers := []int{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15}
  // Original slice
  fmt.Printf("numbers = %v\n", numbers)
  fmt.Printf("length = %d\n", len(numbers))
  fmt.Printf("capacity = %d\n", cap(numbers))

  // Create copy with only needed numbers
  neededNumbers := numbers[:len(numbers)-10]
  numbersCopy := make([]int, len(neededNumbers))
  copy(numbersCopy, neededNumbers)

  fmt.Printf("numbersCopy = %v\n", numbersCopy)
  fmt.Printf("length = %d\n", len(numbersCopy))
  fmt.Printf("capacity = %d\n", cap(numbersCopy))
}

Result:

// Original slice
numbers = [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15]
length = 15
capacity = 15
// New slice
numbersCopy = [1 2 3 4 5]
length = 5
capacity = 5
Try it Yourself »

The capacity of the new slice is now less than the capacity of the original slice because the new underlying array is smaller.


×

Contact Sales

If you want to use W3Schools services as an educational institution, team or enterprise, send us an e-mail:
sales@w3schools.com

Report Error

If you want to report an error, or if you want to make a suggestion, send us an e-mail:
help@w3schools.com

W3Schools is optimized for learning and training. Examples might be simplified to improve reading and learning. Tutorials, references, and examples are constantly reviewed to avoid errors, but we cannot warrant full correctness of all content. While using W3Schools, you agree to have read and accepted our terms of use, cookie and privacy policy.

Copyright 1999-2024 by Refsnes Data. All Rights Reserved. W3Schools is Powered by W3.CSS.