What is the string data type in the Golang language?

In Golang, a string is an immutable sequence of bytes.

Key features:

• Immutability: Once created, a string cannot be changed. Any operation that modifies a string actually creates a new string.
• Representation: A string contains a sequence of bytes. By default, Golang assumes these bytes represent UTF-8 encoded text.
• Length: The length of a string (len(s)) returns the number of bytes in the string, not the number of runes (characters).
• Indexing: Accessing elements of a string by index (s[i]) returns the byte at that index.
• Runes: To work with characters (runes), iterate over the string using a for range loop, which decodes UTF-8 and provides runes and their indices.

Example:

// Initializing a string
s := "Привет, мир!" // 23 bytes, 12 runes

// Length of the string (in bytes)
byteLength := len(s) // byteLength = 23

// Accessing a byte by index
firstByte := s[0] // firstByte = 208 (byte for 'П' in UTF-8)

// Iterating over runes
runeCount := 0
for index, runeValue := range s {
	// index - start index of the rune in bytes
	// runeValue - decoded rune
	runeCount++
}
// runeCount = 12