Slice length and capacity in Go - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Slice length and capacity

📖 Scenario: You are managing a list of fruits in a grocery store inventory system. You want to understand how slices work in Go, especially their length and capacity, to handle the inventory efficiently.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to create a slice, check its length and capacity, and understand how these properties change when slicing the slice.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a slice of strings with exact fruits

Create a new slice from the original slice

Print the length and capacity of both slices

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Slices are used in Go programs to manage collections of data efficiently, such as lists of items in inventory or user data.

💼 Career

Understanding slice length and capacity is essential for Go developers to write efficient and bug-free code when handling dynamic data.

1

Create the initial slice

Create a slice of strings called fruits with these exact values: "apple", "banana", "cherry", "date", "elderberry".

Go

# Create a slice called fruits with the exact fruits
# Your code here

Hint

Use []string{} to create a slice with the exact fruit names inside.

2

Create a new slice from the original

Create a new slice called citrus from fruits that contains only the elements from index 1 to 3 (inclusive start, exclusive end).

Go

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    fruits := []string{"apple", "banana", "cherry", "date", "elderberry"}
    // Create a slice called citrus from fruits[1:4]
    // Your code here
}

Hint

Use slicing syntax fruits[1:4] to get elements from index 1 up to but not including 4.

3

Check length and capacity

Create two variables called fruitsLen and fruitsCap to store the length and capacity of fruits. Also create citrusLen and citrusCap for the length and capacity of citrus.

Go

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    fruits := []string{"apple", "banana", "cherry", "date", "elderberry"}
    citrus := fruits[1:4]
    // Create fruitsLen and fruitsCap for fruits
    // Create citrusLen and citrusCap for citrus
    // Your code here
}

Hint

Use len(slice) for length and cap(slice) for capacity.

4

Print the lengths and capacities

Print the length and capacity of fruits and citrus using fmt.Println with the exact format:
"fruits length: " followed by fruitsLen,
"fruits capacity: " followed by fruitsCap,
"citrus length: " followed by citrusLen,
"citrus capacity: " followed by citrusCap.

Go

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    fruits := []string{"apple", "banana", "cherry", "date", "elderberry"}
    citrus := fruits[1:4]
    fruitsLen := len(fruits)
    fruitsCap := cap(fruits)
    citrusLen := len(citrus)
    citrusCap := cap(citrus)
    // Print the lengths and capacities as instructed
    // Your code here
}

Hint

Use fmt.Println four times with the exact text and variables.