Getting Started with Go: Your First Program

In this post I will write how to create your first Go program. The famous Hello World, that I will replace world for Go.

To get started, you’ll need to install Go on your system. Go to https://go.dev/doc/install and follow the instructions for your operating system

Once installed, verify your installation by opening a terminal and running

go version

This should display the installed Go version.

Now, let’s write our first Go program. Create a file named hello.go with the following content:

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
  fmt.Println("Hello, Go!")
}

Save this file and run this program using the command below in your terminal:

$ go run hello.go

You will see in your terminal the output: “Hello, Go!” Now, let’s break down the program to understand what it is happening:

package main: Every Go file starts with a package declaration. The main package is special because it defines an executable program.
import fmt: This imports fmt package, which provides formatting and printing functions.
func main(): The main function is the entry point of the program.
fmt.Println(): This function prints a line to the console.

Congratulations! You’ve written and run your first Go program.

What will you build next? #Golang