Go Deadlock and Select Statement

Deadlock in Go

Before introducing the concept of Go deadlock, we strongly recommend you go through our article on “Go Routines.” The article covers the fundamentals of “channels” and the “waiting” concept of Go programming.

Let’s start by understanding what deadlock is and when it happens. A deadlock occurs when a set of goroutines are waiting for each other, and none can move forward.

For instance, a deadlock occurs when a goroutine attempts to receive a message from an empty channel and has no other goroutines active. The "Receiver" goroutine, in this case, never receives a message.

Example

Below is the implementation of a deadlock situation where there is no sender. Please look at the code below to have a clear understanding of the deadlock situation.

//example of deadlock in Go due to no sender
package main
import "fmt"
func main() {
    c := make(chan int)
    select {
    case <-c: // this case will never be selected because of deadlock
        fmt.Println("received") // this will never be printed
    }
}

The program will become stuck in the channel sending process, waiting for someone to read the value for a lifetime. Go can detect instances like these in real-time. The following is the output of our programme.

Output

We can see that the program throws a fatal error message about the deadlock situation. Now, in the next section, let's see how we can handle this situation using the default case of the select statement.

Handling Deadlock with Default Case

In the above section, we understood how the deadlock situation arises in Go programming. Now, we will see how we can handle this deadlock situation. We employ a default case in the select statement to avoid this scenario. In other words, if the programme encounters a deadlock, the default case of the select statement is used to prevent the deadlock. 

To avoid deadlock, we use a default case in the choose statement, as illustrated below.

Code

//handling deadlock in Go with Default case in Select statement
package main
import "fmt"
func main() {
    c := make(chan int)
    select {
    case <-c: // this case will never be selected because of deadlock
        fmt.Println("received") // this will never be printed
    default: //default case is executed if no other case is selected
        fmt.Println("default case...")
    }
}

We can see that the default case should be executed in this case because no other case is selected. Here, the deadlock occurs because channel “c” is not closed. Let’s look at the output below.

Output

As expected, we can see that the output is the default case because no other case is selected.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Golang so faster?

Go is a very fast language. Go will automatically outperform interpreted or virtual runtime languages because it is compiled to machine code. Go applications are also incredibly fast to compile, and the final binary is very compact.
 

Is the Golang programming language multithreaded?

Goroutines allow for multi-threaded concurrency and parallelization, and goroutines work asynchronously, allowing for efficient use of both multi-threading and asynchronous programming.
 

What are packages in Golang?

Go Packages (abbreviated as pkg) are directories in the Go workspace containing Go source files or other Go packages. From variables to functions, every piece of code is written in source files, which are then linked into a package. A package should be assigned to each source file.

The basic syntax to declare a package is as follows:

package <package_name>

Is Golang appropriate for coding interviews?

The answer is a straightforward “Yes.” Golang is supported by most code-sharing platforms that corporations use these days for interviews. Most organisations will let you code in your chosen language if you are not applying for senior or mid-senior level positions that need proficiency in a specific language. If Go is your preferred language, go ahead and use it!

Conclusion

This article extensively discussed the basics of deadlock and select statements in Go. We implemented the programme to demonstrate how to avoid the deadlock situation in Go programming by using the default case in the select statement.

We hope this blog has helped you enhance your knowledge regarding “Go Deadlock and Select Statement.” If you would like to learn more, check out our articles on “Go Loops,” “Returning Pointer from a Function in Go,” “Pointer to an Array as Function Argument in Go,” “Defer in Go,” and “Go Routines.” Do upvote our blog to help other ninjas grow.

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