Go functions, closures and handlers

Estimated reading time: 7 mins

While Go is not a functional language, functions are a central part of Go. They can be assigned to variables, passed as parameters and returned from other functions. This is known as support for first class functions and it allows Go programmers to compose higher order functions and closures.

Understanding these mechanisms can be a powerful addition to the tool belt of any programmer, so let’s take some time to explore the behaviour of Go functions.

Let’s get functional and elegant!

Basics

Functions are reusable code blocks, dedicated to performing well defined logic on inputs or parameters and producing outputs or return values.

In Go, functions are declared using the func keyword. The naming convention is to use camelCase. Unless exported, functions are available in the same package that they are declared into.

func myFirstFunction() {
    fmt.Println("This is my first function!")
}

Functions are allowed to take zero or more parameters and return zero or more outputs. The return types must be declared in the function signature.

The function hiBye below says hello and goodbye using 2 different return values.

func hiBye(name string) (string, string) {
	return fmt.Sprintf("Hello, %s!", name),
		fmt.Sprintf("Goodbye, %s!", name)
}

func main() {
	hi, bye := hiBye("favourite reader")
	fmt.Println(hi)
	fmt.Println(bye)
}

main prints out these values to produce the output below. See this in action on the Go playground.

Hello, favourite reader!
Goodbye, favourite reader!

Program exited.

Go also supports anonymous functions, which can be defined inline without having to be explicitly named. In the example below, hiBye now only lives inside main, but it will have the same output as before. See for yourself in the Go playground.

func main() {
	hiBye := func(name string) (string, string) {
		return fmt.Sprintf("Hello, %s!", name),
			fmt.Sprintf("Goodbye, %s!", name)
	}
	
	hi, bye := hiBye("favourite reader")
	
	fmt.Println(hi)
	fmt.Println(bye)
}

Functions can also be deferred using the defer keyword. The deferred call’s arguments are evaluated immediately, but the function call is not executed until the surrounding function returns. The code below defers the call to hiBye until main finishes its work.

func main() {
	hiBye := func(name string) {
		fmt.Printf("Hello, %s!\n", name)
		fmt.Printf("Goodbye, %s!\n", name)
	}

	defer hiBye("favourite reader")

	fmt.Println("Main says hello and goodbye!")
}

Due to the deferred function call, main prints first, finishes, after which the greetings are printed. See this in action on the Go playground.

Main says hello and goodbye!
Hello, favourite reader!
Goodbye, favourite reader!

Program exited.

Closures

Closures are a special case of anonymous functions, which can be a little confusing for those not used to them, so they deserve a moment to investigate.

A closure is a function value that references variables from outside its body. The function may access and assign to the referenced variables; in this sense the function is bound to the variables.

The example below returns a closure, each referencing its own index and greet slice, thus allowing it to maintain state between invocations.

func greet(greetings []string) func() string {
	index := 0
	return func() string {
		greet := fmt.Sprintf("%s!", greetings[index])
		index++
		return greet	
	}
}

func main() {
	his := []string{"Hello", "Salut", "Hej"}
	byes := []string{"Goodbye", "La revedere", "Farvel"}
	hi, bye := greet(his), greet(byes)
	for i := 0; i < len(his); i++ {
		fmt.Println(
			hi(),
			bye(),
		)
	}
}

main prints out these values to produce the output below. See this in action on the Go playground.

Hello! Goodbye!
Salut! La revedere!
Hej! Farvel!

Program exited.

Higher order functions

As seen in the basics section above, Go functions can be passed around, returned and assigned to variables. This is particularly useful for constructing a function, but not immediately invoking it.

Higher order functions are those functions composed from other functions. They can either accept a function as a type or return a function. Functions can be treated as any other value type, so composing higher order functions is easy and seamless.

The hiBye function can now be composed of 2 separate greet functions and invoked only once.

func print(name string, hi func(string) string, bye func(string) string) {
	fmt.Printf("%s\n%s\n", hi(name), bye(name))
}

func hiBye() (func(string) string, func(string) string) {
	hi := func(name string) string {
		return fmt.Sprintf("Hello, %s!", name)
	}
	bye := func(name string) string {
		return fmt.Sprintf("Goodbye, %s!", name)
	}
	return hi, bye
}

func main() {
	hi, bye := hiBye()
	print("favourite reader", hi, bye)
}

main prints out these values to produce the same output. See this in action on the Go playground.

Hello, favourite reader!
Goodbye, favourite reader!

Program exited.

Handlers

An interesting notable mention when discussing functions is in the context of building HTTP servers using the net/http package.

An HTTP handler is a function that runs in response to a request made to an HTTP server.
In Go, handlers are registered on server routes using the http.HandleFunc convenience function. It sets up the default router in the net/http package and takes a function as an argument.

func (mux *ServeMux) HandleFunc(pattern string, handler func(ResponseWriter, *Request))

A common way to write a handler is by using the http.HandlerFunc adapter on functions with the appropriate signature. Functions serving as handlers take a http.ResponseWriter and a http.Request as arguments. The response writer is used to fill in the HTTP response.

type HandlerFunc func(ResponseWriter, *Request)

The hiBye function explored so far can be easily converted to a handler function to serve the greetings explored so far. Note how the hiBye function is passed to the HandleFunc as a parameter.

func hiBye(w http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request) {
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Hello!\nGoodbye!\n")
}

func main() {
	http.HandleFunc("/hibye", hiBye)

	fmt.Println("Listening on :8090...")
	http.ListenAndServe(":8090", nil)
}

The full code can be seen in the Go playground, but it will need to be run locally and tested using curl. The output should be as below:

$ curl localhost:8090/hibye
Hello!
Goodbye!

The signature of the HandlerFunc is pre-defined, so what would happen if the function needed more parameters passed to it? As before, it would be great to pass a name to the greeting, as below:

func hiBye(w http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request, name string) {
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Hello, %s!\nGoodbye, %s!\n", name, name)
}

func main() {
	http.HandleFunc("/hibye", hiBye("favourite reader"))

	fmt.Println("Listening on :8090...")
	http.ListenAndServe(":8090", nil)
}

This throws compilation errors because HandleFunc is expecting a function parameter, but now the hiBye function has been invoked with only one parameter. Oh dear, what a pickle!

$ go run handlers.go
# command-line-arguments
./handlers.go:13:36: not enough arguments in call to hiBye
        have (string)
        want (http.ResponseWriter, *http.Request, string)
./handlers.go:13:36: hiBye("favourite reader") used as value 

While there are other solutions to this problem out in the wild, a common solution is to use a wrapper function or closure to pass the parameter to the hiBye function. In this way, the returned function still conforms to the expected signature and the greeting gets its extra parameter.

func hiBye(name string) http.HandlerFunc {
	return func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
		fmt.Fprintf(w, "Hello, %s!\nGoodbye, %s!\n", name, name)
	}
}

func main() {
	http.HandleFunc("/hibye", hiBye("favourite reader"))

	fmt.Println("Listening on :8090...")
	http.ListenAndServe(":8090", nil)
}

The full code can be seen in the Go playground, but it will need to be run locally and tested using curl. The output should be as below:

$ curl localhost:8090/hibye
Hello, favourite reader!
Goodbye, favourite reader!

Parting words

That’s it for now. I’ve covered a lot of ground, but a few key points to remember are:

Go functions can be assigned to variables, passed as parameters and returned from other functions
Functions can be anonymous. This means they are declared inline and are not explicitly named
Closures are anonymous functions that are bound to variables outside of their body
Higher order functions are composed from other functions. They can either accept functions as a type or return functions
Handlers are functions that run in response to a request made to an HTTP server

Having a good understanding of functions can help solve a wide variety of problems through composition. I hope this post gave you an insight into the wonderful world of Go functions.

Happy Go coding!

Basics

Closures

Higher order functions

Handlers

Parting words

Comments or Burning Questions?