Welcome to your first Go programming lesson! In this section, we will guide you through writing, running, and understanding your first Go program. By the end of this lesson, you will have a basic understanding of Go's syntax and structure.

First, create a new file with a .go extension. You can name it main.go.

Open main.go in your favorite text editor or IDE and type the following code:

Let's break down the code step by step:

• package main: Every Go program starts with a package declaration. The main package is a special package that tells the Go compiler that this is an executable program.

• import "fmt": The import statement is used to include the fmt package, which contains functions for formatting text, including printing to the console.

• func main() { ... }: The main function is the entry point of the program. When you run the program, the code inside the main function is executed.

• fmt.Println("Hello, World!"): This line calls the Println function from the fmt package to print the string "Hello, World!" to the console.

To run your Go program, follow these steps:

1. Open your terminal or command prompt.
2. Navigate to the directory where main.go is located.
3. Run the following command:

You should see the output:

Now it's your turn to practice. Modify the program to print your name instead of "Hello, World!".

Exercise

1. Open main.go.
2. Change the fmt.Println line to print your name.

Example:

3. Save the file and run the program again using go run main.go.

Solution

Here's how the modified program should look:

• Missing package main: Ensure that your file starts with package main. Without it, the Go compiler will not recognize it as an executable program.
• Incorrect import path: Make sure you use double quotes around the package name in the import statement.
• Syntax errors: Go is a statically typed language, so pay attention to syntax. Missing braces {} or parentheses () will cause errors.

In this lesson, you learned how to:

• Create a new Go file.
• Write a simple Go program.
• Understand the basic structure and syntax of a Go program.
• Run your Go program from the terminal.

In the next lesson, we will dive deeper into Go's basic syntax and structure, helping you build a solid foundation for more complex programs. Happy coding!