A Simple Beginner’s Guide to Golang Structs

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Golang Structs

If you’re learning Go, one of the first concepts you must understand is Golang Structs. Structs are Go’s way of grouping related data together — and they’re used everywhere in real Go programs.

In this beginner-friendly guide, you’ll learn:

  • What a struct is
  • How to create and use a struct
  • How to assign data to a struct
  • How to use methods with structs
  • Why structs are so important in Go

Let’s break it down in the simplest way possible.

⭐ What Is a Struct in Golang?

A struct is a custom data type that lets you group related fields together.

Think of a struct like a “box” that contains multiple pieces of information about something.

Example: A user profile.

type User struct {
    Name  string
    Age   int
    Email string
}
  • User is the struct name
  • Inside it, you have fields like Name, Age, and Email

Because Go doesn’t have classes, structs are extremely common and often replace them.

⭐ Creating and Using a Struct

Let’s create a user and print their details:

user := User{
    Name:  "Alice",
    Age:   25,
    Email: "alice@example.com",
}

fmt.Println(user.Name)  // Alice
fmt.Println(user.Age)   // 25

Simple and clean.

⭐ Updating Struct Fields

For example, you can update the data inside a struct anytime:

user.Age = 26
user.Email = "alice@newmail.com"

Struct fields act just like normal variables.

⭐ Adding Methods to Structs (Very Beginners-Friendly)

Go doesn’t have classes, but you can add methods to structs using receivers.

Example:

func (u User) WelcomeMessage() string {
    return "Welcome, " + u.Name
}

Use it like this:

fmt.Println(user.WelcomeMessage())

This makes your struct act almost like an object in other languages.

⭐ Why Structs Are Important in Go (Beginner Perspective)

In addition, structs help you:

✔ Organize your data

Example: a Product, User, Book, etc.

✔ Build APIs, databases, and JSON models

Example: mapping JSON to a struct:

type Product struct {
    Name  string `json:"name"`
    Price int    `json:"price"`
}

✔ Build clean and readable code

Instead of many separate variables, you keep data together.

Structs = clean code.

⭐ Embedding Structs (Bonus for Beginners)

You can put one struct inside another.
It’s like inheritance but simpler.

type Address struct {
    City  string
    Zip   string
}

type User struct {
    Name string
    Address
}

After that, now you can do:

user := User{
    Name: "Alice",
    Address: Address{
        City: "Casablanca",
        Zip:  "20000",
    },
}

fmt.Println(user.City)

This keeps your code organized neatly.

⭐ Final Example: Structs in a Real Program

Here is a very simple Go program using everything we learned:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
)

type User struct {
    Name  string
    Age   int
    Email string
}

func (u User) Info() string {
    return fmt.Sprintf("%s is %d years old. Email: %s", u.Name, u.Age, u.Email)
}

func main() {
    user := User{
        Name:  "Alice",
        Age:   25,
        Email: "alice@example.com",
    }

    fmt.Println(user.Info())
}

⭐ Final Thoughts

Structs are the heart of Go programming.
If you understand structs well, the rest of Go becomes much easier — especially when you start working with APIs, files, databases, or large applications.

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