String vs. []byte in Go: When Should You Choose Which?

String vs. []byte in Go

String and []byte represent fundamentally different data types in Go, with distinct uses and characteristics.

Conversion and Relationships:

String and []byte can be interconverted through specific operations:

• Converting a string to []byte yields a slice containing the individual bytes of the string.
• Converting a slice of bytes to a string produces a string with those bytes as its content.

Blog details on Arrays and Slices: "Strings are simply read-only slices of bytes with additional language support." (Arrays, slices (and strings): The mechanics of 'append')

When to Choose:

The choice between string and []byte depends on the specific requirement:

• Strings: Immutable, suitable for sharing, and require guarantee of no modification.
• Byte Slices: Modifiable (content of backing array), ideal for frequent string-to-byte conversions (e.g., for io.Writer), and sometimes preferred for optimizations and performance considerations.

In some cases, using []byte directly can be more efficient when reading from or writing to io.Reader or io.Writer.

Example:

Consider the byte slice:

bb := []byte{'h','e','l','l','o',127}

• The literal values represent characters and a byte value (127).
• Depending on the platform, the visual representation of the byte value may vary.
• When converted to a string, the resulting string contains only the character representations ('hello') as the byte value is not a valid character.

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