Functions receiving references
By default, Go functions receive arguments by value.
But you can pass a reference to a variable to a function. In this case, we need to receive a pointer instead of the value.
func increment(a *int) {
*a++
}
func main() {
var a = 1
increment(&a)
fmt.Println(a)
}
func main() {
var a = 1
var b = &a
increment(b)
increment(&a)
fmt.Println(a)
}
We need to use the * operator to access the value of the pointer.
To get the address of a variable, use the & operator.
We need to use pointers when functions need to modify the value of the argument.
TRY IT OUT
Exercise: Printing pointer information
Let's try and print the address of the pointer and the value of the pointer in the above code example.