What is the name of the approach in Go where you create a channel, close it, then read from it? What is the advantage of closing a channel over sending a value into it?

This approach is called "channel closing" in Go. When a channel is closed using close(ch), it signals to receivers that no more values will be sent.

Advantages of closing a channel instead of sending a special value:

• Receivers can use the for val := range ch construct to read all values until the channel is closed, simplifying the code.
• Closing a channel allows distinguishing between the situation where the channel is empty but not closed, and the situation where no more data will be sent.
• There is no need to invent and check special placeholder values.

Example:

ch := make(chan int)
go func() {
    defer close(ch)
    for i := 0; i < 5; i++ {
        ch <- i
    }
}()

for val := range ch {
    fmt.Println(val)
}
// After closing, the for loop will end automatically