Is there a way to iterate over a slice in reverse in Go?

Question

It would be convenient to be able to say something like:

for _, element := reverse range mySlice {
        ...
}

Answer 1

No there is no convenient operator for this to add to the range one in place. You'll have to do a normal for loop counting down:

s := []int{5, 4, 3, 2, 1}
for i := len(s)-1; i >= 0; i-- {
   fmt.Println(s[i])
}

Answer 2

How about use defer:

s := []int{5, 4, 3, 2, 1}
for i, _ := range s {
   defer fmt.Println(s[i])
}

Answer 3

One could use a channel to reverse a list in a function without duplicating it. It makes the code nicer in my sense.

package main

import (
    "fmt"
)

func reverse(lst []string) chan string {
    ret := make(chan string)
    go func() {
        for i, _ := range lst {
            ret <- lst[len(lst)-1-i]
        }
        close(ret)
    }()
    return ret
}

func main() {
    elms := []string{"a", "b", "c", "d"}
    for e := range reverse(elms) {
        fmt.Println(e)
    }
}

Answer 4

When I need to extract elements from a slice and reverse range, I use something like this code:

// reverse range
// Go Playground: https://play.golang.org/p/gx6fJIfb7fo
package main

import (
    "fmt"
)

type Elem struct {
    Id   int64
    Name string
}

type Elems []Elem

func main() {
    mySlice := Elems{{Id: 0, Name: "Alice"}, {Id: 1, Name: "Bob"}, {Id: 2, Name: "Carol"}}
    for i, element := range mySlice {
        fmt.Printf("Normal  range: [%v] %+v\n", i, element)
    }

    //mySlice = Elems{}
    //mySlice = Elems{{Id: 0, Name: "Alice"}}
    if last := len(mySlice) - 1; last >= 0 {
        for i, element := last, mySlice[0]; i >= 0; i-- {
            element = mySlice[i]
            fmt.Printf("Reverse range: [%v] %+v\n", i, element)
        }
    } else {
        fmt.Println("mySlice empty")
    }
}

Output:

Normal  range: [0] {Id:0 Name:Alice}
Normal  range: [1] {Id:1 Name:Bob}
Normal  range: [2] {Id:2 Name:Carol}
Reverse range: [2] {Id:2 Name:Carol}
Reverse range: [1] {Id:1 Name:Bob}
Reverse range: [0] {Id:0 Name:Alice}

Playground: https://play.golang.org/p/gx6fJIfb7fo

Answer 5

You can also do:

s := []int{5, 4, 3, 2, 1}
for i := range s {
        fmt.Println(s[len(s)-1-i]) // Suggestion: do `last := len(s)-1` before the loop
}

---

Output:

1
2
3
4
5

Also here: http://play.golang.org/p/l7Z69TV7Vl

Answer 6

I guess this is the easiest way to reverse arrays.:

package main

import "fmt"

// how can we reverse write the array
func main() {

    arr := [...]int{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}
    revArr := [len(arr)]int{} // making empty array for write reverse

    for i := range arr {
        revArr[len(arr)-1-i] = arr[i]
    }

    fmt.Println(revArr)
}

https://play.golang.org/p/QQhj26-FhtF