closing-channels.go

// _Closing_ a channel indicates that no more values
// will be sent on it. This can be useful to communicate
// completion to the channel's receivers.

package main

import "fmt"

// In this example we'll use a `jobs` channel to
// communicate work to be done from the `main()` goroutine
// to a worker goroutine. When we have no more jobs for
// the worker we'll `close` the `jobs` channel.
func main() {
    jobs := make(chan int, 5)
    done := make(chan bool)

    // Here's the worker goroutine. It repeatedly receives
    // from `jobs` with `j, more := <-jobs`. In this
    // special 2-value form of receive, the `more` value
    // will be `false` if `jobs` has been `close`d and all
    // values in the channel have already been received.
    // We use this to notify on `done` when we've worked
    // all our jobs.
    go func() {
        for {
            j, more := <-jobs
            if more {
                fmt.Println("received job", j)
            } else {
                fmt.Println("received all jobs")
                done <- true
                return
            }
        }
    }()

    // This sends 3 jobs to the worker over the `jobs`
    // channel, then closes it.
    for j := 1; j <= 3; j++ {
        jobs <- j
        fmt.Println("sent job", j)
    }
    close(jobs)
    fmt.Println("sent all jobs")

    // We await the worker using the
    // [synchronization](channel-synchronization) approach
    // we saw earlier.
    <-done
}