Go

Run the Go examples calling byexample as:

$ byexample -l go your-file-here                # byexample: +skip

You need the have installed yaegi, an interactive interpreter for Go.

Check its download page

Stability: experimental - non backward compatibility changes are possible or even removal between versions (even patch versions).

New in byexample 10.2.0.

Language	Runner/Interpreter
1.19	v0.14.0
1.18	v0.14.0
1.17	v0.13.0
1.16	v0.13.0

Find interactive examples

For Go, byexample uses the > string as the primary prompt and . as the secondary prompt.

> a := 1
> b := 2
> a + b
: 3

> func g(a, b, c int) int {
.   c += a
.   c += b
.
.   return c
. }

> g(1, 2, 3)
: 6

The object returned

Because everything in yaegi, the interpreter of Go, is evaluated as an expression, everything returns something.

This is annoying if you want to write several Go lines without checking the results.

For this reason, byexample suppress the representation of the object returned unless the example has a :.

In the following case, the first example is executed but the value of its expression evaluated is not checked while in the second example it is checked.

> 1 + 2

> 1 + 2
: 3

Notice how the second example has a : to mark the value of the expression to be compared. This mark is used by byexample to know when or when not suppress the value.

This affects only the value of the expression, it has no effect on the output of the example in general.

For example the prints are not suppressed:

> fmt.Println("hello")
hello

You can change the behavior of byexample with:

• +go-expr-print=true to print always the expression, disabling the suppression
• +go-expr-print=false to never print the expression.
• +go-expr-print=auto to let byexample decide when to suppress or not based on the mark :. This is the default.

This and any other flag/option can be set in the example’s comment.

> fmt.Println("hello      world")       // byexample: +norm-ws
hello world

Currently the flags/options can only be set in the single-line comments (//); block comments are not supported (/* .. */).

Known limitations

yaegi may sometime crash or panic. In general this is because you are trying to run a code using undefined variables.

If you find a crash/panic, review the example. Make sure that the previous examples also worked.

However there are some things that yaegi does not currently support. Here are all the ones that byexample is aware of.

Pointers and slices

Pointers in the main space are not supported but pointers in a function are okay

> sum := 1

> // not supported
> var p *int = &sum  // byexample: +skip

> // supported
> func bar(p *int) {
.    *p = 37
. }

> bar(&sum)
> sum
: 37

The same limitation happens with slices: they are not supported in the main space but in the functions are okay.

> primes := [6]int{2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13}

> // not supported
> var subprimes[]int = primes[1:4]    // byexample: +skip

> // supported
> func chunk(primes *[6]int) {
.    var subprimes[]int = primes[1:4]
.    fmt.Println(subprimes)
. }

> chunk(&primes)
[3 5 7]

Slices in the main space can be created using make:

> mem := make([]int, 5)
> mem
: [0 0 0 0 0]

Type assertions and switches

Type assertions are not supported but you can use type switches in a function

> var iface interface{} = "hello"

> // not supported
> s := i.(string)     // byexample: +skip

> // supported
> func do(i interface{}) {
.       switch v := i.(type) {
.       case int:
.               fmt.Printf("Twice %v is %v\n", v, v*2)
.       case string:
.               fmt.Printf("%q is %v bytes long\n", v, len(v))
.       default:
.               fmt.Printf("I don't know about type %T!\n", v)
.       }
. }

> do(21)
Twice 21 is 42
> do("foo")
"foo" is 3 bytes long
> do(3.1416)
I don't know about type float64!

Type text

The type feature (+type) is not supported.

Go specific options

$ byexample -l go --show-options       # byexample: +norm-ws
<...>
go's specific options
---------------------
<...>:
  +go-expr-print {auto,true,false}
                        print the expression's value (true); suppress it
                        (false); or print it only if the example has a colon
                        (auto, the default)