How Generics Can Make Your Code More Robust and Maintainable

A quick start guide on how to use generics in Go

Before the introduction of generics, the only way to handle different data types was to implement custom interfaces or write duplicate code.

By using generics, you can create reusable and flexible code that works with different types of parameters.

In this article, we will explore the main benefits of using generics in Go by looking at some practical examples in real-world scenarios.

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An introduction to generics

Generics allow you to define a single function that can take multiple types of parameters, rather than having to write multiple versions of the same function to handle different cases.

This approach not only makes your code more efficient, but also keeps it cleaner and easier to maintain.

For example, we can consider a simple function that takes two numbers as input and returns their sum.

There are many types available in Go to define numbers such as int, int64, uint, float32, float64, and so on.

In our example, you would need to write multiple functions for all possible combinations of the two parameters.