Understanding Type Inference in Go

In Go, numbers like 1, 2.5, -3 don't have a type until you use them in a context where a type is expected.

Go allows the compiler to infer the type of a number based on how it's being used.

📌 Statement

A number can be given a type by using it in a context that requires one, such as a variable assignment or function call.
For example, here math.Sin expects a float64.

Example

import "math"

x := math.Sin(1)

What's happening here?

• 1 is a numeric literal without an explicit type.

• math.Sin is a function that expects a float64 parameter.

Since you're passing 1 into math.Sin, Go automatically treats 1 as float64. Even though you didn’t write 1.0 or cast it like float64(1), Go infers the type because of the context.