Pointers inside struct

Programming
#1

Thus far in Go, it is said that we create variables inside a struct using data types such as int and string.
e.g

type Circle struct { 
x int 
y int 
radius float64 
area float64
}

But while building an API development project, pointers like *mux.Router and *sql.DB are used to declare the data type of variables inside the struct. Is it possible to define a variable using pointers? I don’t really get the concept behind this.

Here is a screenshot of the lecture on project setup. :point_down:

struct
struct1919×976 61.5 KB

#2

The App struct contains 2 pointer members call Router and DB
The Router member is a pointer to a mux.Router etc.

The assignments at lines 18 and 23 re fine, because the first one returns a *sql.DB and the second one a *mux.Router

There are pointers to DB and Router structs created within their packages.
You are more likely to want to interact with pointers to structs when

  • The actual struct is large and passing it by value is inefficient
  • There are methods associated with the structs that change its internal state - i.e. pointer receivers.

You should review the lessons on pointers.