Conversions [complete list]

yourbasic.org/golang
butterfly

Basics

The expression T(x) converts the value x to the type T.

x := 5.1
n := int(x) // convert float to int

The conversion rules are extensive but predictable:

Conversions to and from numbers and strings may change the representation and have a run-time cost. All other conversions only change the type but not the representation of x.

Interfaces

To “convert” an interface to a string, struct or map you should use a type assertion or a type switch. A type assertion doesn’t really convert an interface to another data type, but it provides access to an interface’s concrete value, which is typically what you want. Type assertions and type switches

Integers

a := uint16(0x10fe) // 0001 0000 1111 1110
b := int8(a)        //           1111 1110 (truncated to -2)
c := uint16(b)      // 1111 1111 1111 1110 (sign extended to 0xfffe)

Floats

var x float64 = 1.9
n := int64(x) // 1
n = int64(-x) // -1

n = 1234567890
y := float32(n) // 1.234568e+09
Warning: In all non-constant conversions involving floating-point or complex values, if the result type cannot represent the value the conversion succeeds but the result value is implementation-dependent. The Go Programming Language Specification: Conversions

Integer to string

string(97) // "a"
string(-1) // "\ufffd" == "\xef\xbf\xbd"
Use strconv.Itoa to get the decimal string representation of an integer.
strconv.Itoa(97) // "97"

Strings and byte slices

string([]byte{97, 230, 151, 165}) // "a日"
[]byte("a日")                     // []byte{97, 230, 151, 165}

Strings and rune slices

string([]rune{97, 26085}) // "a日"
[]rune("a日")             // []rune{97, 26085}

Underlying type

A non-constant value can be converted to type T if it has the same underlying type as T.

In this example, the underlying type of int64, T1, and T2 is int64.

type (
	T1 int64
	T2 T1
)

It’s idiomatic in Go to convert the type of an expression to access a specific method.

var n int64 = 12345
fmt.Println(n)                // 12345
fmt.Println(time.Duration(n)) // 12.345µs

(The underlying type of time.Duration is int64, and the time.Duration type has a String method that returns the duration formatted as a time.)

Implicit conversions

The only implicit conversion in Go is when an untyped constant is used in a situation where a type is required.

In this example the untyped literals 1 and 2 are implicitly converted.

var x float64
x = 1 // Same as x = float64(1)

t := 2 * time.Second // Same as t := time.Duration(2) * time.Second

(The implicit conversions are necessary since there is no mixing of numeric types in Go. You can only multiply a time.Duration with another time.Duration.)

When the type can’t be inferred from the context, an untyped constant is converted to a bool, int, float64, complex128, string or rune depending on the syntactical format of the constant.

n := 1   // Same as n := int(1)
x := 1.0 // Same as x := float64(1.0)
s := "A" // Same as s := string("A")
c := 'A' // Same as c := rune('A')

Illegal implicit conversions are caught by the compiler.

var b byte = 256 // Same as var b byte = byte(256)
../main.go:2:6: constant 256 overflows byte

Pointers

The Go compiler does not allow conversions between pointers and integers. Package unsafe implements this functionality under restricted circumstances.

Warning: The built-in package unsafe, known to the compiler, provides facilities for low-level programming including operations that violate the type system. A package using unsafe must be vetted manually for type safety and may not be portable. The Go Programming Language Specification: Package unsafe

Share this page: