Go Variables

How it works

var can declare a variable with an explicit type or infer one from its initializer. Inside a function, := declares at least one new variable. An int without an initializer has zero as its initial value. Assignment changes an existing variable rather than declaring another one.

Run this Go example

Install Go separately from the official Go downloads and check go version in a new terminal. The reviewed baseline is Go 1.27.3 on Windows amd64; the authored syntax and standard-library APIs require Go 1.22 or newer. Save the complete source below as variables.go in a learning folder, then run go run variables.go from that folder. These examples use only the standard library.

Bhylu has no Go browser runner. Apache, MySQL, PHP and the JavaScript or Python playground are not required to run these files. File examples own a temporary directory; HTTP client examples create an ephemeral loopback server and close it. They do not contact an external API.

Download the complete variables.go · Download all source files with hash checks

For the optional collection download, save download-examples.mjs in a new learning folder and run node download-examples.mjs. A local preview uses node download-examples.mjs http://127.0.0.1:8000/examples/go/. The downloader refuses an existing bhylu-go-examples folder and installs or executes no Go code.

Example

package main

import (
	"fmt"
)

func main() {
	var waiting int
	waiting = 5
	received := 2
	waiting += received
	fmt.Println(waiting)
}

Expected result

7

waiting starts at zero, receives five, and then increases by two. The += operator changes the same variable. Type inference selects int for the untyped integer assigned to received.