Comparing Golang and understanding Java Value Types

COMPARING
GOLANG AND
UNDERSTANDING
JAVA VALUE TYPES
April 26, 2018 12:00-13:00
Peter Verhas
Software Architect

I AM JAVA PROGRAMMER, WHY SHOULD I CARE?
• I have read about ValueTypes in
2015... So what ?
• I learned a bit Golang in 2016 and
then again Value Types
• Ahhh... that’s it!
• Go is so much different from Java, we
can learn a lot from it
Photo by Les Anderson on Unsplash

DISCLAIMER
1. I am a Java programmer first
2. I am a polyglot programmer second
3. I know Java and Go is only one of the many languages I
am not afraid of
4. I have Swiss Chocolate

WHAT IS THE ANSWER TO THE ULTIMATE QUESTION OF LIFE,
THE UNIVERSE, AND EVERYTHING ?
WAS IST DIE ANTWORT NACH DEM LEBEN, DEM UNIVERSUM UND
DEM GANZEN REST?
FORTY-TWO
ZWEIUNDVIERZIG

GO IS THE LANGUAGE OF GOOGLE
• Go is the new C++
• Go is a system programming language
• Go is genius
• Go is terrible
Photo by Henry Hustava on Unsplash

SERIOUSLY…
• Go is a compiled language source -> exe, no VM
• Object oriented and functional
• There is a garbage collector but it is not a real garbage collector,
• … or is it?

WE WILL TALK ABOUT
• Language syntax
• Exception handling (panic)
• GC
• Local variables and the stack
• Closures
• Goroutines
• Object Orientation and Inheritance
• There is
• There is not
This will teach us the most!
We only slightly touch these!

SYNTAX
• mostly C like Java, C#, Perl, ….
• BUT if a == b {
…
}
if( a == b )
var x : = expressiontypeOfx
• if variable is not used it is an error
• if you import a package you do not use it is an error
• if you do not use semicolon at the end of the line… go will assume you
wanted
• Public is written capitalized. Otherwise private.

FUNCTION DEFINITION
• There are functions… just function
• Methods are also functions with receiver
• We just separate the parts with spaces and parentheses

EXCEPTION HANDLING
• There is no exception handling
• Methods return multiple values (like Python), usually result and error
status
• Panic is like Java throw but should not be used for exceptions, only error
• Defer can be used like Java finally

GARBAGE COLLECTION
• For the programmer: there is an automated Garbage Collector
• For the hard-core JVM guys: it is not a real GC, there is no compacting
• and how objects are stored and managed is a reason for that

LOCAL VARIABLES AND THE STACK
• What happens when you return a pointer to a local variable in C?
• What happens when you return a pointer to a local variable in Go?
• Go will allocate the escaping local variable on the heap.

CLOSURES
• Functions defined inside function
• Surrounding is closure
• Return a function as result (Go is functional)

GOROUTINES
• Goroutines are fibers, lightweight threads.
• You can start a few tens of thousands of them, no problem.
• There is a built-in type: channel. This is a fixed size FIFO.

OBJECTS IN GO
• There is interface in GO but this is something different from what it
is in Java.
• You do not … implements … an interface, you just implement it.
• There is a struct type
• Struct can not extend other structs but it may contain other structs
• Functions may operate on a certain type

17CONFIDENTIAL
INTERFACE
STRUCT DOES NOT „IMPLEMENTS”
STRUCT CONTAINS
FUNCTION WORKS ON A STRUCT TYPE
(RECEIVER OF THE FUNCTION)
VARIABLES ARE EITHER STRUCT TYPE OR
INTERFACE TYPE
OBJECTS IN GO OBJECTS IN JAVA
INTERFACE
CLASS IMPLEMENTS INTERFACE
CLASS EXTENDS
METHOD INSIDE CLASS
VARIABLES ARE EITHER CLASS TYPE OR
INTERFACE TYPE, BUT IT DOES NOT
MATTER

GOLANG „OBJECTS” ARE HEADLESS
• Java has ~ 8/16 byte header in front of each object
• Golang has struct, no header
• Java array  array of references to objects
• Go array  array of struct memory
• (interface array is array of references)

GOLANG „OBJECTS” ARE HEADLESS
• Variables that are struct type hold the value
• Variables that are pointer to struct type know what they point to
• Variables that are interface type have a reference to the struct and
also reference to the struct definition
• Let’s have a weird example that will make you understand and
remember

AND NOW SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
JAVA VALUE TYPES

WHAT ARE VALUE TYPES IN JAVA?
• Project Valhalla started 2014
• byte, short, int, long, float, double, char and boolean
are value types
• Project Valhalla aims user definable value types
• Value types are not objects, they hold only the value

GOLANG STRUCT VS. JAVA VALUE TYPE
struct
interface
value
type
object
object
header

WHY DO WE NEED THEM?
• For example Date is a good candidate to be a value type
• Old mistake: object has synchronization lock support (seemed to be
a good idea)
• Objects occupy the heap, value types are allocated on the stack
• Value type arrays are CPU cache friendly
Codes like a class, works like an int!

CONSEQUENCES
• Compare with ==
• Value type variable can not be null
• Limited or no inheritance
• Even if there is inheritance we cannot have polymorphism
• Method call pass-by-value

CONSEQUENCES FOR JVM
• Scala Value Type can be extended (restricted to 1 field)
• Languages like Swift, Golang can be effectively compiled to JVM
or not…
• Many cases we can stop joking around with off-heap memory
mapped files for high performance data intensive application

OBJECT
DATA
OBJECT HEADER
WHY?
WHICH IS THE BETTER?
VARIABLE

TAKEAWAY
• Java is good as it is
• But it can be and it will be better with value types
• Java will always be better
• and better
• Go, and learn go to be a better (Java) programmer.
https://play.golang.org/

THANK YOU
DANKE
peter@verhas.com, verhas@twitter/github, http://javax0.wordpress.com

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