Go: sorting slices

  • Go
  • Gabriele Romanato

Go is a powerful and versatile programming language that offers many features for managing and manipulating data structures. Among these, sorting a slice is a common operation that can be done using Gos native sorting features.

Slices in Go are similar to arrays, but have variable lengths. They can contain elements of the same type and offer a flexible way to organize and manipulate data. To sort a slice in Go, you can use the sort function of Gos standard package.

Here are the steps for sorting a slice in Go:

  1. Import the sort package : To use the sort function, you need to import the sort package. You can do this by including the following line at the start of your source file: 

    
import "sort"

  2. Define the slice: Declare and initialize the slice with the data you want to sort. For example, to sort a slice of integers, you could do something like this: 

    
numbers := []int{4, 2, 7, 1, 5}

  3. Use the sort function: The sort.Slice function is used to sort a slice based on a custom comparison function. The general syntax of the sort.Slice function is as follows: 

    sort.Slice(slice, lessFunc)

    Where slice is the slice you want to sort and lessFunc is a function that defines the comparison order of the elements. This function takes two arguments of type T , where T is the type of elements in your slice, and returns a boolean value indicating whether the first element is less than the second. For example, if youre sorting a slice of integers in ascending order, your comparison function might be: 

    
func lessFunc(i, j int) bool {
    return numbers[i] < numbers[j]
}

  4. Perform sorting: You can now call the sort.Slice function to sort your slice using the custom compare function. For example: 

    sort.Slice(numbers, lessFunc)

    After executing this line, the slice numbers will have been sorted in ascending order.

  5. Use the sorted slice: Once you have ordered your slice, you can use it as per your requirement. For example, you can iterate over the slice and print its sorted elements: 

    
for _, num := range numbers {
    fmt.Println(num)
}

    This code will print the elements of slice numbers in ascending order.

Sorting a slice in Go is a simple operation thanks to the functionality provided by the languages sort package. By following the steps described above, you will be able to easily sort your slices in ascending or descending order, using a custom compare function.

Back to top