Numbers

Go has two distinct number types – integers, also known as whole numbers and floating-point numbers. The floating-point number type allows whole numbers and numbers that contain fractions of a whole number.

1, 54, and 5,436 are examples of whole numbers. 1.5, 52.25, 33.333, and 64,567.00001 are all examples of floating-point numbers.

Note

The default and empty value for all number types is 0.

Next, we’ll start our number journey by looking at integers.

Integers

Integer types are classified in two ways, based on the following conditions:

• Whether or not they can store negative numbers
• The smallest and largest numbers they can store

Types that can store negative numbers are called signed integers. Types that can’t store negative numbers are called unsigned integers. How big and small a number each type can store is determined by how many bytes of internal storage they have.

Here is an excerpt from the Go language specification...