String literals

Often programs need to have string data specified within the programs themselves. This data is usually in the form of string literals.

With the best syntax, we can make our programs easier to read. Raw string literals in Go use tick characters. Regular expressions often benefit from raw literals.

Example

Go supports 2 syntaxes for string literals. For simple strings like "cat" we should prefer the double-quoted version. Escaped characters are treated in different ways.

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    // Part 1: the newline sequence is treated as a special value.
    value1 := "cat\ndog"
    fmt.Println(value1)

    // Part 2: the newline sequence is treated as two raw chars.
    value2 := `cat\ndog`
    fmt.Println(value2)
}
cat
dog
cat\ndog

Paths

The syntax form for string literals that uses the backtick character is ideal for paths on Windows. We can avoid escaping the backslash character.

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "os"
)

func main() {
    // Specify the path with backtick syntax.
    path := `C:\Windows`
    // Read the directory.
    outputDirRead, _ := os.Open(path)
    outputDirFiles, _ := outputDirRead.ReadDir(0)
    fmt.Println(len(outputDirFiles))
}
108

Summary

String literal syntax can improve a program's readability. With a carefully chosen literal syntax form, programs are easier to read—and this will tend to lead to fewer bugs.