Advanced Slice Operations Quiz

What are the length and capacity of the 'part' slice?

lyric := []string{"show", "me", "my", "silver", "lining"}
part  := lyric[1:3:5]

Length: 1 - Capacity: 5
Length: 1 - Capacity: 3
Length: 3 - Capacity: 5
Length: 2 - Capacity: 4 CORRECT

4: General Formula: [low:high:max] => length = high - max and capacity = max - low. lyric[1:3] is ["me" "my"]. lyric[1:3:5] is ["me" "my" "silver" "lining"]. So, [1:3] is the returned slice, length: 2. [1:3:5] limits the capacity to four because after the 1st element there are only four more elements.

What are the lengths and capacities of the slices below?

lyric := []string{"show", "me", "my", "silver", "lining"}
part  := lyric[:2:2]
part   = append(part, "right", "place")

lyric's len: 5, cap: 5 — part's len: 5, cap: 5
lyric's len: 3, cap: 1 — part's len: 2, cap: 3
lyric's len: 5, cap: 5 — part's len: 4, cap: 4 CORRECT
lyric's len: 3, cap: 1 — part's len: 2, cap: 3

3: lyric[:2:2] = ["show" "me"]. After the append the part becomes: ["show" "me" "right" "place"] — so it allocates a new backing array. lyric stays the same: ["show" "me" "my" "silver" "lining"].

When you might want to use the make function?

To preallocate a backing array for a slice with a definite length CORRECT
To create a slice faster
To use less memory

1: Yes! You can use the make function to preallocate a backing array for a slice upfront.

What does the program print?

tasks := make([]string, 2)
tasks  = append(tasks, "hello", "world")

fmt.Printf("%q\n", tasks)

["" "" "hello" "world"] CORRECT
["hello" "world"]
["hello" "world" "" ""]

1: make([]string, 2) creates a slice with len: 2 and cap: 2, and it sets all the elements to their zero-values. append() appends after the length of the slice (after the first two elements). That's why the first two elements are zero-valued strings but the last two elements are the newly appended elements.

What does the program print?

tasks := make([]string, 0, 2)
tasks  = append(tasks, "hello", "world")

fmt.Printf("%q\n", tasks)

["" "" "hello" "world"]
["hello" "world"] CORRECT
["hello" "world" "" ""]

2: make([]string, 0, 2) creates a slice with len: 0 and cap: 2. append() appends after the length of the slice (at the beginning). That's why the first two elements are overwritten with the newly appended elements. This is a common usage pattern when you want to use the make and the append functions together.

What does the program print?

lyric := []string{"le", "vent", "nous", "portera"}
n := copy(lyric, make([]string, 4))

fmt.Printf("%d %q\n", n, lyric)

// -- USEFUL INFORMATION (but not required to solve the question) --
//      In the following `copy` operation, `make` won't allocate
//      a slice with a new backing array up to 32768 bytes
//      (one string value is 8 bytes on a 64-bit machine).
//
//      This is an optimization made by the Go compiler.

4 ["le" "vent" "le" "vent"]
4 ["le" "vent" "nous" "portera"]
4 ["" "" "" ""] CORRECT
0 []

3: copy copies a newly created slice with four elements (make([]string, 4)) onto lyric slice. They both have 4 elements, so the copy copies 4 elements. Remember: make() initializes a slice with zero-values of its element type. Here, this operation clears all the slice elements to their zero-values.

What does the program print?

spendings := [][]int{{200, 100}, {}, {50, 25, 75}, {500}}
total := spendings[2][1] + spendings[3][0] + spendings[0][0]

fmt.Printf("%d\n", total)

725 CORRECT
650
500
750

1: spendings[2][1] = 25. spendings[3][0] = 500. spendings[0][0] = 200. 25 + 500 + 200 = 725

What does the program print?

spendings := [][]int{{1,2}}
    
// REMEMBER: %T prints the type of a given value
fmt.Printf("%T - ", spendings)
fmt.Printf("%T - ", spendings[0])
fmt.Printf("%T", spendings[0][0])

[][]int{{1, 2}} - []int{1, 2} - int(2)
[][]int - []int - int CORRECT
[]int - int - 2
[][]int - [][]int - []int

2: spendings is a 2-dimensional int slice, so its type is [][]int. Its element type is: []int, so: spendings[0] is []int. spendings[0]'s element type is: int. So spendings[0][0]'s type is int.

What is the 'element type' of the slice?

[][][3]int{{{10, 5, 9}}}

[][][3]int
[][]int
[][3]int CORRECT
[3]int

3: [][][3]int is a multi-dimensional slice of [][3]int elements. [][3]int is a multi-dimensional slice of [3]int elements. [3]int is an array of 3 int values.