【转】An introduction to using and visualizing channels in Go
An introduction to using and visualizing channels in Go
原文:https://www.sohamkamani.com/blog/2017/08/24/golang-channels-explained/
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An introduction to using and visualizing channels in Go ➡️
August 24, 2017
If you’re a beginner getting into Go, its mostly quite easy and straightforward. That is, until you get to channels.
At first, everything about channels seems confusing and unintuitive. The fact that not many other popular programming languages have a similar concept, means that channels is one concept that you have to spend some time learning them, if you’re starting your journey with Go.
At the end of this article, you should have all you need to understand how channels work in Go.
Visualizing Goroutines
To understand channels properly, it is essential to know how to visualize Goroutines first.
Let’s start with a simple Goroutine, that takes a number, multiplies it by two, and prints its value (Run this code):
package main
import (
"fmt"
"time"
)
func main() {
n := 3
// We want to run a goroutine to multiply n by 2
go multiplyByTwo(n)
// We pause the program so that the `multiplyByTwo` goroutine
// can finish and print the output before the code exits
time.Sleep(time.Second)
}
func multiplyByTwo(num int) int {
result := num * 2
fmt.Println(result)
return result
}
We can visualize this program as a set of two blocks: one being the main funciton, and the other being the multiplyByTwo goroutine.
The problems with this implementation (that can also be seen from the diagram), is that these two parts of our code are rather disconnected. As a consequence :
- We cannot access the result of
multiplyByTwo
in themain
function. - We have no way to know when the
multiplyByTwo
goroutine completes. As a result of this, we have to pause themain
function by callingtime.Sleep
, which is a hacky solution at best.
Example #1 - Adding a channel to our goroutine
Let’s now look at some code that introduces how to make and use a channel in Go (Run this code):
package main
import (
"fmt"
)
func main() {
n := 3
// This is where we "make" the channel, which can be used
// to move the `int` datatype
out := make(chan int)
// We still run this function as a goroutine, but this time,
// the channel that we made is also provided
go multiplyByTwo(n, out)
// Once any output is received on this channel, print it to the console and proceed
fmt.Println(<-out)
}
// This function now accepts a channel as its second argument...
func multiplyByTwo(num int, out chan<- int) {
result := num * 2
//... and pipes the result into it
out <- result
}
A channel gives us a way to “connect” the different concurrent parts of our program. In this case, we can represent this connection between our two concurrent blocks of code visually :
Channels can be thought of as “pipes” or “arteries” that connect the different concrrent parts of our code.
Directionality
You can also observe that the connection is directional (that’s why theres an arrow, and not just a line). To explain this, take a look at the type definition of the out
argument of the multiplyByTwo
function :
out chan<- int
- The
chan<-
declaration tells us that you can only put stuff into the channel, but not receive anything from it. - The
int
declaration tells us that the “stuff” you put into the channel can only be of theint
datatype.
Although they look like separate parts, chan<- int
can be thought of as one datatype, that describes a “send-only” channel of integers.
Similarly, an example of a “receive-only” channel declaration would look like:
out <-chan int
You can also declare a channel without giving directionality, which means it can send or recieve data :
out chan int
This is actually seen when we create the out
channel in the main
function :
out := make(chan int)
The reason we had to make a bi-directional channel was because we were using it to send data from the multiplyByTwo
function and receive that same data in the main
function.
Blocking code
Statements that send or receive values from channels are blocking inside their own goroutine.
This means that when we try to print the value received (in the main
function) :
fmt.Println(<-out)
The <-out
statement will block the code until some data is received on the out
channel. It helps to then visualize this by splitting the main
block into two parts : the part that runs until its time to wait for the channel to receive data, and the part that is run after.
The second part of main
can only be run once data is received through the channel, which is why the green arrow connects to the second part.
The dotted arrow added here is to show that it is the main
function that started the multiplyByTwo
goroutine.
Example #2 - Two single directional channels
Example #1 can be implemented another way, by using 2 channels : one for sending data to the goroutine, and another for receiving the result (Run this code).
package main
import (
"fmt"
)
func main() {
n := 3
in := make(chan int)
out := make(chan int)
// We now supply 2 channels to the `multiplyByTwo` function
// One for sending data and one for receiving
go multiplyByTwo(in, out)
// We then send it data through the channel and wait for the result
in <- n
fmt.Println(<-out)
}
func multiplyByTwo(in <-chan int, out chan<- int) {
// This line is just to illustrate that there is code that is
// executed before we have to wait on the `in` channel
fmt.Println("Initializing goroutine...")
// The goroutine does not proceed until data is received on the `in` channel
num := <-in
// The rest is unchanged
result := num * 2
out <- result
}
Now, in addition to main
, multiplyByTwo
is also divided into 2 parts: the part before and after the point where we wait on the in
channel (num := <- in
)
Example #3 - Multiple concurrent goroutines
Now consider the case where we want to run multiplyByTwo
concurrently 3 times (Run this code) :
package main
import (
"fmt"
)
func main() {
out := make(chan int)
in := make(chan int)
// Create 3 `multiplyByTwo` goroutines.
go multiplyByTwo(in, out)
go multiplyByTwo(in, out)
go multiplyByTwo(in, out)
// Up till this point, none of the created goroutines actually do
// anything, since they are all waiting for the `in` channel to
// receive some data
in <- 1
in <- 2
in <- 3
// Now we wait for each result to come in
fmt.Println(<-out)
fmt.Println(<-out)
fmt.Println(<-out)
}
func multiplyByTwo(in <-chan int, out chan<- int) {
fmt.Println("Initializing goroutine...")
num := <-in
result := num * 2
out <- result
}
It is important to note that there is no guarantee as to which goroutine will accept which input, or which goroutine will return an output first. All the main
function “knows”, is that it is sending some data into the in
channel, and expects some data to be received on the out
channel.
This can be slightly harder to visualize, but hang in there!
The multiple concurrent goroutines require a different visualization for channels. Here, we see a channel as a kind of “pool” of data (formally known as a buffer). For the purple channel (in
), the main
function puts in data, and one of the initialized goroutines receive the data. There is no information regarding which goroutine takes which data. This is the same for the green out
channel going back into the main
routine.
The main
routine is now split into 4 parts, since 3 parts now correspond to the 3 times we have to wait ont he out
channel (as described by the 3 fmt.Println(<-out)
statements), and another part for the operations before the first fmt.Println(<-out)
statement.
The multiplyByTwo
goroutines on their own, look (and function) the same as before.
Going forward from here
A lot of the time, programs written in Go are highly confusing because of the concurrency and asynchronous nature of the code. Visualizing your code before you proceed to write it (or for that matter, visualizing someone else’s code before you modify it), can help a great deal and actually save you time in understanding.
All this being said, channels in Go make concurrent programming much easier than it would be without them, and its hard to appreciate the amount of code that we don't
have to write because of them. Hopefully, these visualizations make it even easier.
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