Methods | Notion

A method is a function tied to a type, usually a struct but it works with any type.

This is similar to classes in languages like Java or C++.

Basics of methods:

The instance on which the method operates is called a receiver.

In the above example method PrintFullName takes a receiver p whose type is *Person.

People coming from other languages are tempted to name the receiver this (mimicking C++) or self (mimicking Python). That is bad style in Go.

In Go, the rule for naming receiver is:

Value vs. pointer receiver

Method receiver can be either a value or a pointer.

As a convenience, the Go allows calling a pointer receiver on a value and calling a value receiver on a pointer:

A value receiver is called on a copy of a value:

You can see above the consequences of calling value receiver on a copy of a value:

the address of f receiver is different that the address of fv value. This indicates it's a different value i.e. f is a copy of fv that Go compiler created implicilty
changing f inside Print value receiver doesn't change the fv value