Type

In Go we use the type keyword to declare a type (like a struct) or a type alias (an identifier that can be used instead of a type name).

To declare a struct, we must use the type keyword before the struct name. For type aliases, we can use a block to set up multiple aliases.

This program uses the type keyword in 2 ways: first it declares a struct type (Cat) with it, and then it sets up 2 type aliases to the Cat type. In the main() method we use the various types.

Part 1 We declare a Cat struct, and this struct has one field in it: an int field. This type declaration does not create an instance of the type.

Part 2 Here we see 2 type aliases for the Cat struct. This means the terms Kitty and Meow can be used in place of Cat.

Part 3 We use the Cat type and its 2 aliases (Kitty and Meow) to create 3 instances of the Cat type. Each cat has 4 paws.

package main

import (
    "fmt"
)

// Part 1: use type to specify a new struct type.
type Cat struct {
    paws int
}

// Part 2: use type to set up type aliases.
type (
    Kitty = Cat
    Meow  = Cat
)

func main() {
    // Part 3: use the struct type and its various aliased types.
    c := Cat{paws: 4}
    fmt.Println(c)

    k := Kitty{paws: 4}
    fmt.Println(k)

    m := Meow{paws: 4}
    fmt.Println(m)
}{4}
{4}
{4}

Summary

In Go we cannot just use the struct keyword to declare a struct—we must prefix the struct name with the type keyword. With type aliases, we can make certain programs compile correctly.