Explain what the term code generation means and how it is applied in software development

Code generation is the process of automatically creating source code for programs using special tools or scripts. In software development, it is used to reduce routine work, increase code consistency, and accelerate development.

For example, in Go, code generation is often used to create serialization methods, implement interfaces, or generate boilerplate code based on data structure descriptions. This helps avoid manually writing repetitive code and reduces the likelihood of errors.

Example: using the stringer tool, you can automatically generate methods to convert constants to strings.

//go:generate stringer -type=Status

type Status int

const (
    Pending Status = iota
    Active
    Inactive
)

Running go generate will create a file with the implementation of the String() method for the Status type.