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slice 3

What does the following program print?

package main

import "fmt"

var x = []int{2: 5, 6, 0: 7}

func main() {
	fmt.Println(x)
}

Choices:

Answer: [7 0 5 6]

Run it on Go play.

Key points:
  • keyed elements (here they are 2: 5 and 0: 7) and un-keyed elements (here it is 6) may be mixed up in array and slice composite literals.
  • the index of an un-keyed element is determined by the index of the last keyed element. If all previous elements are un-keyed, then its index is its order number (zero based). So the index of the element 6 is 3.
  • the length of an array or slice composite literal is the largest element index plus one.
  • unspecified elements are viewed as the zero value of the element type.

The following is another example, which prints 7 88.

package main

func main() {
	var x = []int{4:44, 55, 66, 1:77, 88}
	println(len(x), x[2])
}


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