Function which accepts array of arbitrary size as argument (is it possible in Golang?)

Question

Q: Is there a way, in golang, to define a function which accepts an array of arbitrary length as argument?

e.g.,

function demoArrayMagic(arr [magic]int){
....
}

I have understood that in golang, array length is part of the variable type, for this reason the following function is not going to accept one arbitrary array as input

function demoArray(arr [2]int){
....
}

This function is not going to compile with arrInput [6]int as input--i.e., demoArray(arrInput) will fail to compile.

Also the following function, which accepts a slice argument, does not accept arrays as arguments (different types, as expected):

function demoSlice(arr []int){
....
}

i.e., demoSlice(arrInput) does not compile, expects a slice not an array.

The question is, is there a way to define a function that takes arrays of arbitrary length (arrays, NOT slice)? It looks quite strange and limiting for a language to impose this constraint.

The question makes sense independently from the motivation, but, in my case, the reason behind is the following. I have a set of functions which takes as arguments data structures of type [][]int. I noticed that GOB serialization for them is 10x slower (MB/s) than other data structures I have. I suppose that may be related to the chain of derefencing operations in slices. Moving from slices to array--i.e.,defining objects of type [10000][128]int--may improve situation (I hope).

Regards

P.s: I remind now that Go, passes/uses things 'by value', using arrays may be overkill cause golang is going to copy them lot of times. I think I'll stay with slices and I'll try to understand GOB internals a bit.

Seventy

Answer 1

There is not. Go does not support generics.

The only way would be to use interface{}, but that would allow to pass a value of any type, not just arrays of your desired type.

Arrays in Go are "secondary". The solution is to use slices for your requirement.

One thing to note here is that you may continue to use arrays, and only slice them when you want to pass them to this function, e.g.:

func main() {
    a1 := [1]int{1}
    demo(a1[:])

    a2 := [2]int{1, 2}
    demo(a2[:])
}

func demo(s []int) {
    fmt.Println("Passed:", s)
}

Output of the above (try it on the Go Playground):

Passed: [1]
Passed: [1 2]

Cotinga

thank you, I am already using slices with success.. I was looking for another way to make the job done. It looks there is not.. I wait for other responses and in case I'll light up yours. Regards – Seventy

@FabianoTarlao Note that you may continue to use arrays, and only slice them when you need to pass them to this function. See edited answer. – Cotinga

this may be an interesting perspective, I'l think about it ... thank you again, for your time – Seventy

Hoped this would be possible.. Slices are passed by reference, and I want pass by value like with arrays. Now it feels like Java where it is a hassle to clone or getting rid of references. – Jeffery