As we know that a channel is a medium of communication between concurrently running goroutines so that they can send and receive data to each other. By default a channel is bidirectional but you can create a unidirectional channel also. A channel that can only receive data or a channel that can only send data is the unidirectional channel. The unidirectional channel can also create with the help of make() function as shown below:
// Only to receive data c1:= make(<- chan bool) // Only to send data c2:= make(chan<- bool)
Example 1:
Go
// Go program to illustrate the concept// of the unidirectional channelpackage mainimport "fmt"// Main functionfunc main() { // Only for receiving mychanl1 := make(<-chan string) // Only for sending mychanl2 := make(chan<- string) // Display the types of channels fmt.Printf("%T", mychanl1) fmt.Printf("\n%T", mychanl2)} |
Output:
<-chan string chan<- string
Converting Bidirectional Channel into the Unidirectional Channel
In Go language, you are allowed to convert a bidirectional channel into a unidirectional channel, or in other words, you can convert a bidirectional channel into a receive-only or send-only channel, but vice versa is not possible. As shown in the below program:
Example:
Go
// Go program to illustrate how to convert// bidirectional channel into the// unidirectional channelpackage mainimport "fmt"func sending(s chan<- string) { s <- "GeeksforGeeks"}func main() { // Creating a bidirectional channel mychanl := make(chan string) // Here, sending() function convert // the bidirectional channel // into send only channel go sending(mychanl) // Here, the channel is sent // only inside the goroutine // outside the goroutine the // channel is bidirectional // So, it print GeeksforGeeks fmt.Println(<-mychanl)} |
Output:
GeeksforGeeks
Use of Unidirectional Channel: The unidirectional channel is used to provide the type-safety of the program so, that the program gives less error. Or you can also use a unidirectional channel when you want to create a channel that can only send or receive data.
