String() Method and Format Specifiers

This lesson describes how to use format specifiers and change the String() function to bring variations to the default print functions in Go.

When you define a type with a lot of methods, chances are you will want to make a customized string-output for it with the String( ) method, in other words: a human-readable and printable output. This is because if String( ) is defined for a certain type, then this method will be used in fmt.Printf() to produce the default output, which is the output produced with the format specifier %v. Furthermore, fmt.Print() and fmt.Println() will automatically use the String( ) method.

We will test this out with the help of a program:

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Appendix

String() Method and Format Specifiers