# How to loop over a slice in Go
# Iterating over a slice using a for loop and range.
🗓 August 12, 2018 | 👱 By: Hugh
To iterate over a slice in Go, create a for loop and use the range keyword:
package main
import (
"fmt"
)
func main() {
slice := []string{"this", "is", "a", "slice", "of", "strings"}
for index, itemCopy := range slice {
fmt.Printf("%v: %v\n", index, itemCopy)
}
}
The output will be:
0: this
1: is
2: a
3: slice
4: of
5: strings
As you can see, using range actually returns two values when used on a slice. The first is the index of the value in the slice, the second is a copy of the object. Note that it is not a reference to the actual object. This means if you modify the copy, the object in the slice won't necessarily change.
As an example, don't do this:
package main
import (
"fmt"
)
func main() {
slice := []string{"this", "is", "a", "slice", "of", "strings"}
// Exclamation marks will only be appended to the copy.
for _, itemCopy := range slice {
itemCopy = itemCopy + "!"
}
// They won't be present in the output.
for index, itemCopy := range slice {
fmt.Printf("%v: %v\n", index, itemCopy)
}
}
Output:
0: this
1: is
2: a
3: slice
4: of
5: strings
Two things to note, first is you can use an underscore _ to discard a range value if it is not used in the loop. Second, and more importantly, is to emphasise that the copy really is a copy and won't alter the actual object. A slice of references will behave the same way, the key difference, however, is that a copy of a reference will still point to the same object - dereferencing and editing the pointed to object will change the object pointed to by both the original reference and its copy.
If you want to edit the actual value, you can use the index to access it. The following will work:
package main
import (
"fmt"
)
func main() {
slice := []string{"this", "is", "a", "slice", "of", "strings"}
// Exclamation marks will be appended to the object in the slice.
for index, _ := range slice {
slice[index] = slice[index] + "!"
}
// They will be present in the output.
for index, itemCopy := range slice {
fmt.Printf("%v: %v\n", index, itemCopy)
}
}
Output:
0: this!
1: is!
2: a!
3: slice!
4: of!
5: strings!
Warning! This is not concurrency safe - in a more complex code base, there is no guarantee that another goroutine is not also iterating and editing the slice. You must add some syncronisation if you want to guarantee safety.