Pair/tuple data type in Go
You can do this. It looks more wordy than a tuple, but it's a big improvement because you get type checking.
Edit: Replaced snippet with complete working example, following Nick's suggestion. Playground link: http://play.golang.org/p/RNx_otTFpk
package main
import "fmt"
func main() {
queue := make(chan struct {string; int})
go sendPair(queue)
pair := <-queue
fmt.Println(pair.string, pair.int)
}
func sendPair(queue chan struct {string; int}) {
queue <- struct {string; int}{"http:...", 3}
}
Anonymous structs and fields are fine for quick and dirty solutions like this. For all but the simplest cases though, you'd do better to define a named struct just like you did.
There is no tuple type in Go, and you are correct, the multiple values returned by functions do not represent a first-class object.
Nick's answer shows how you can do something similar that handles arbitrary types using interface{}
. (I might have used an array rather than a struct to make it indexable like a tuple, but the key idea is the interface{}
type)
My other answer shows how you can do something similar that avoids creating a type using anonymous structs.
These techniques have some properties of tuples, but no, they are not tuples.