Does Go Support Tail Call Optimization?

Tail Call Optimization in Go

Tail call optimization (TCO) is a compiler technique that transforms a recursive function call into a non-recursive form. This is typically done by removing the stack frame for the recursive call and continuing execution at the caller's stack frame.

Question: Does Go support TCO?

As of the current version of Go, the language does not explicitly guarantee TCO. However, it does optimize certain types of tail calls in some cases.

Answer: Optimized Tail-Recursive Calls

Go optimizes tail-recursive calls of a function to itself. This means that if a function calls itself as its last action, Go may remove the stack frame for the recursive call and continue execution at the caller's stack frame.

Further Insights

To determine whether specific cases of tail calls are optimized, it's recommended to refer to the Go language source code, which is publicly available.

Note that Go compilers may support TCO for certain cases, but the language specification does not guarantee it in all situations. If it's essential to have tail calls for a particular purpose, consider using loops or goto statements as alternatives.

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