Go Keywords and Identifiers

When playing with definitions of variables and constants, you may have noticed that the compiler does not allow you to use certain names for variables. For example, the following code will not compile:

package main

func main() {
	type := "How are you?"
	println(type)
}

Let us explain what is going on here.

Keywords

A keyword is a word that is reserved by the language and cannot be used for any other purpose. For example, true and package are keywords in Go. The full list of keywords is available in the Go specification.

break        default      func         interface    select
case         defer        go           map          struct
chan         else         goto         package      switch
const        fallthrough  if           range        type
continue     for          import       return       var

You may have recognized some of these keywords (such as var, const, func and package) from the previous tutorials. By the end of this course, you will have seen all of them.

Identifiers

An identifier is a name that is used to identify a variable, function, type, etc.

Predeclared identifiers

Some of them are predefined (such as true, false and nil), and you should not use them for your own purposes (unless you have a perfect reason to do so).

Here is the complete list for reference:

1) Types:

2) Constants: true, false, ota

3) Zero value: nil

4) Functions:

User-defined identifiers

As long as you don't use any word that appears in one of the lists above, and as long as you follow those two simple rules, you can choose any name you want for your variables, constants, functions, etc.

1. The first character must be a letter.
2. The remaining characters can be letters or digits.

Note: The underscore character (_) is considered a letter for the purpose of this rule.

Consequently, the following names are valid identifiers:

• message,
• myName,
• YOUR_NAME,
• myName42.

But it is considered a good style to use mixedCase for variables, constants, and functions rather than snake_case (as in Python).