How to Install and Configure Go on Ubuntu: A Step-by-step Guide

MacOS is an operating system for desktop computers and tablets developed by Apple specifically for its devices. It is initially pre-installed on all Apple devices, specifically the Apple Macintosh or Mac for short. Unlike Linux, macOS is a proprietary operating system, which, of course, brings certain peculiarities in installing various development tools on it. To see more details about it, check our instruction on how to deploy cloud server on MacOS. In this article, we will take a detailed look at how to install Go on a macOS computer. Golang, or simply Go, is an open source programming language developed by Google to create applications based on microservice architecture. On our app platform you can find various Go frameworks, such as Beego and Gin. To ensure the stability of your computer and the Go compiler, we recommend using the latest version of macOS. 1. Uninstall old Golang versions Check if Golang is already installed Before you start installing Golang, first check if it is installed on your system already. A simple way to do this is to run a command that outputs the Golang version: go version If Go is indeed installed, you will see a message in the console terminal displaying the language version and the operating system's name. Something like this: go version go1.21.3 darwin/amd64 Uninstall Golang If Go is present on your system, you need to uninstall it to avoid possible installation conflicts. MacOS stores files from the Golang package in a predetermined location: The /usr/local/go directory. This is where Golang itself is placed. The /etc/paths.d/go file. Golang environment variables are specified here. So, to uninstall Golang, you need to clear the above directories: rm -rf /usr/local/go rm -rf /etc/paths.d/go The rm command deletes a directory or a file, while the -rf flag indicates a recursive-forced type of deletion. r stands for recursive and is used to delete the specified folder, all its subfolders, subfolders of subfolders, etc. f stands for force so no external states or variables can prevent the deletion from occurring Great! Golang is now removed from your computer. This means we can move on to downloading the Golang package for macOS and then installing it. 2. Download Golang There are two ways to download the Go language archive to your computer. One is manual, and the other is more automatic. Let's look at both. Manual download The official Golang website has a special page with links to download the latest version of Go. Once you open it, you will see several buttons leading to the latest language version for a particular platform. We are interested in the Apple operating system. At the moment of writing this article, there are two versions of the language for MacOS. One is for the new Apple ARM64 processor architecture, and the other is for the classic Intel 65-bit architecture. You should choose the one that suits your device. The latest Mac models have ARM64 processors. Clicking on the link will start downloading the archive file named go1.21.3.darwin-amd64.pkg, or a later version. Download via console An alternative to downloading manually is using the command line. MacOS has a special curl tool included in the operating system. So we can use the curl utility with the exact URL where the Golang archive file is available: curl -o golang.pkg https://dl.google.com/go/go1.21.3.darwin-amd64.pkg This command uses a special flag -o (--output), which ensures that the data received through the curl request is written to the golang.pkg file. Note that the URL contains the exact name of the file we want to download and the Golang version. When the curl command is finished, we will have a golang.pkg file containing the Golang language package. Then we just need to install it. 3. Install the Go package As with the download, installation is also available in two ways: through the GUI or the command line interface. Installing via GUI To install Go on macOs, simply run the downloaded package.  After the automatic installation is done, you will get a success message confirming that the software is installed. Installing via command line If you prefer working with the terminal, run the following command: sudo open golang.pkg Then follow the terminal prompts until a similar window appears, informing about the successful installation. 4. Set environment variables After installation, we must tell the system where to find the Golang compiler when the console terminal receives the command to compile and run the application. First, let's navigate to the home directory using the following command: cd ~ Now add the locations of the Golang components to .bash_profile. This file is automatically loaded when you log in to your macOS account and contains all the startup configurations for the command line interface. Add environment variables to the end of the file, either manually or via the echo command: echo "export GOROOT=/usr/local/go" >> .bash_profileecho "export GOPATH=$HOME/Documents/go" >> .bash_profileecho "export PATH=$GOPATH/bin:$GOROOT/bin:$PATH" >> .bash_profile The >> operator indicates that the text in quotes after echo will be written to the .bash_profile file. The GOROOT variable points to the directory where the Go compiler is installed. GOPATH contains the address of the Go working directory. And PATH helps the command line to find binary files during source compilation. 5. Check the installation To verify that Golang has been successfully installed on macOS, you need to restart the command line terminal and query the Go version: go version If the installation was done correctly, the console will display a message: go version go1.21.3 darwin/amd64 6. Launch a test application In this article we won't go into the details of Golang syntax and peculiarities of programming in this language. We will just write, compile, and run a simple program with trivial output to the console to make sure that the installed compiler works. Let's create a new file in our home directory using the nano editor: nano main.go Then fill it with the following contents: package main import "fmt" func main() { fmt.Println("Hello, World!") // CONCLUSION: Hello, World! } To exit nano, press "CTRL+X". When prompted to save the file, press "Y", then "ENTER". Now we can compile and run our program with just one command: go run main.go There is also another command that builds the application source code into a complete executable file that can be distributed and deployed to other local machines: go build If you don't specify the name of the go file as an argument, the command will compile the file with the standard name main.go. For example, if the file containing our program were named test.go, the build command would look like this: go build test.go During build, the Go compiler will include all the .go files involved in the final "build", adding the auxiliary code needed to run the application on any computer with the same system architecture. Building to an executable file allows programs to run on other computers regardless of whether the Golang compiler itself is directly installed on them. Conclusion Despite being a proprietary operating system, macOS allows you to install tools from third-party companies and developers (in our case, Google), including open-source solutions. In this article, we have looked at the standard way of installing the Golang compiler on macOS, which includes a few basic steps: Checking for older versions Uninstalling the old versions if they exist Downloading the package from the official website (manually or automatically) Installing the downloaded package (via GUI or terminal) Adding environment variables Checking if the installation is correct Compiling and running a simple code With these steps, we installed Go on macOS and ran our first program using fairly simple commands. For further study of the language and deeper familiarization with its syntax, we recommend checking the documentation on the official Golang website. Also, Hostman offers various VPS Servers for you to host on Mac by low price! Frequently Asked Questions How to install Go on Mac without Homebrew? Download the installer from golang.org, run it, and then update your PATH manually. What is the easiest way to install Go on macOS? Honestly? Just run brew install go if you already use Homebrew — it’s fast and simple. How do I set the PATH for Go on macOS? Add this line to your shell config: export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin. Where is Go installed on macOS? Usually at /usr/local/go when using the official package.

Databases are an essential part of almost any project today. Database interactions are especially familiar to system and database administrators, DevOps/SRE professionals, and software developers. While administrators typically deploy one or multiple database instances and configure the necessary connection parameters for applications, developers need to connect directly to the database within their code. This article explores how to connect to databases using different programming languages. Prerequisites We will provide examples for connecting to MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, MongoDB, and ClickHouse databases using Python, Go, and JavaScript. To follow this guide, you will need: A database deployed on a server or in the cloud. Installed environments for Python, Go, and JavaScript, depending on your application programming language. Additionally for Python: pip installed. Additionally for JavaScript: Node.js and npm installed. Database Connection in Python MySQL and Python For connecting to MySQL databases, we can use a Python driver called MySQL Connector. Install the driver using pip: pip install mysql-connector-python Initialize a new connection: Import the mysql.connector library and the Error class to handle specific connection errors. Create a function named create_connection, passing the database address (host), user name (user), and user password (password). To establish the connection, define a class called create_connection that receives the variable names containing the database connection details. import mysql.connector from mysql.connector import Error def create_connection(host_name, user_name, user_password): connection = None try: connection = mysql.connector.connect( host="91.206.179.29", user="gen_user", password="m-EE6Wm}z@wCKe" ) print("Successfully connected to MySQL Server!") except Error as e: print(f"The error '{e}' occurred") return connection def execute_query(connection, query): cursor = connection.cursor() try: cursor.execute(query) connection.commit() print("Query executed successfully") except Error as e: print(f"The error '{e}' occurred") connection = create_connection("91.206.179.29", "gen_user", "m-EE6Wm}z@wCKe") Run the script. If everything works correctly, you will see the "Successfully connected to MySQL Server!" message. If any errors occur, the console will display error code and description. Create a new table: Connect to the database using the connection.database class, specifying the name of the database. Note that the database should already exist. To create a table, initialize a variable create_table_query containing the SQL CREATE TABLE query. For data insertion, initialize another variable insert_data_query with the SQL INSERT INTO query. To execute each query, use the execute_query class, which takes the database connection string and the variable containing the SQL query. connection.database = 'test_db' create_table_query = """ CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS users ( id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, name VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL, age INT NOT NULL ) """ execute_query(connection, create_table_query) insert_data_query = """ INSERT INTO users (name, age) VALUES ('Alice', 30), ('Bob', 25) """ execute_query(connection, insert_data_query) if connection.is_connected(): connection.close() print("Connection closed") Run the script. PostgreSQL and Python Python offers several plugins for connecting to PostgreSQL, but the most popular one is psycopg2, which we will use here. Psycopg2 is one of the most frequently used Python plugins for PostgreSQL connections. One of its key advantages is its support for multithreading which allows you to maintain the database connection across multiple threads. Install psycopg2 using pip (if not already installed): pip install psycopg2-binary Connect to PostgreSQL. Import the Python psycopg2 package and create a function create_new_conn, using the try block. Establish the connection with the psycopg2.connect function, which requires the database name, user name, password, and database address as input. To initialize the connection, use the create_new_conn() function. Here’s the full code example for connecting to a database: import psycopg2 from psycopg2 import OperationalError def create_new_conn(): conn_to_postgres = None while not conn_to_postgres: try: conn_to_postgres = psycopg2.connect( default_db="default_db", default_user="gen_user", password_for_default_user="PasswordForDefautUser9893#", db_address="91.206.179.128" ) print("The connection to PostgreSQL has been successfully established!") except OperationalError as e: print(e) return conn_to_postgres conn_to_postgres = create_new_conn() Run the script: python3 connect_to_postgres.py If successful, you will see the "The connection to PostgreSQL has been successfully established!" message. . Next, create a table named books, which will have three columns. Use the cursor class for SQL expressions, such as creating database objects. If the query involves adding or modifying data, you must call the conn_to_postgres.commit() function afterward to apply the changes. import psycopg2 from psycopg2 import OperationalError def create_new_conn(): conn_to_postgres = None while not conn_to_postgres: try: conn_to_postgres = psycopg2.connect( default_db="default_db", default_user="gen_user", password_for_default_user="PasswordForDefautUser9893#", db_address="91.206.179.128" ) except OperationalError as e: print(e) return conn_to_postgres conn_to_postgres = create_new_conn() cursor = conn_to_postgres.cursor() cursor.execute(""" CREATE TABLE books ( book_id INT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL, book_name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, book_author VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL ) """) conn_to_postgres.commit() print("Table Created successfully") Run the script: python3 create_table.py Now, let’s run INSERT INTO to add a new line: cursor.execute(""" INSERT INTO books (book_id,book_name,book_author) VALUES (1, 'Long Walk to Freedom', 'Nelson_Mandela') """) The full code is below: import psycopg2 from psycopg2 import OperationalError def create_new_conn(): conn_to_postgres = None while not conn_to_postgres: try: conn_to_postgres = psycopg2.connect( default_db="default_db", default_user="gen_user", password_for_default_user="PasswordForDefautUser9893#", db_address="91.206.179.128" ) except OperationalError as e: print(e) return conn_to_postgres conn_to_postgres = create_new_conn() cursor = conn_to_postgres.cursor() cursor.execute(""" INSERT INTO books (book_id,book_name,book_author) VALUES (1, 'Long Walk to Freedom', 'Nelson_Mandela') """) conn_to_postgres.commit() conn_to_postgres.close() print("Data inserted successfully") Run the script: python3 insert-data.py Redis and Python Redis belongs to the class of NoSQL databases, where data is stored in memory rather than on hard drives. It uses a key-value format for data storage. Redis has a wide range of applications, from data storage and caching to serving as a message broker. We will use the redis-py (or simply redis) library for connecting to Redis. Install the Redis library using pip: pip install redis Connecting to a Redis instance: Use a try block structure for connection, specifying the function redis.StrictRedis where you provide the Redis address, port, and user password. import redis try: connect_to_redis_server = redis.StrictRedis( redis_db_host=91.206.179.128, redis_db_port=6379, redis_user_password='PasswordForRedis6379') print connect_to_redis_server connect_to_redis_server.ping() print 'Successfully connected to Redis Server!' except Exception as ex: print 'Error:', ex exit('Failed to connect to Redis server.') Run the script: python3 connect_to_redis.py If successful, you will see a message like "Successfully connected to Redis Server!". Unlike relational databases, Redis stores data in a key-value format. The key uniquely identifies the corresponding value. Use the set method to create a new record. The example below creates a record with the key City and the value Berlin: print('Create new record:', connect_to_redis_server.set("City", "Berlin")) Use the get method to retrieve the value associated with a key: print('Print record using record key:', connect_to_redis_server.get("City")) Use the delete method to remove a record by its key: print('Delete record with key:', connect_to_redis_server.delete("City")) The complete code fragment is below. import redis try: connect_to_redis_server = redis.StrictRedis( redis_db_host=91.206.179.128, redis_db_port=6379, redis_user_password='PasswordForRedis6379') print ('New record created:', connect_to_redis_server.set("City", "Berlin")) print ('Print created record using record key', connect_to_redis_server.get("City")) print ('Delete created record with key :', connect_to_redis_server.delete("City")) except Exception as ex: print ('Error:', ex) MongoDB and Python MongoDB is another widely used NoSQL database that belongs to the document-oriented category. Data is organized as JSON-like documents. To connect to a MongoDB database with Python, the recommended library is PyMongo, which provides a synchronous API. Install the PyMongo plugin: pip3 install pymongo Connect to MongoDB server using the following Python code. Import the pymongo module and use the MongoClient class to specify the database server address. To establish a connection to the MongoDB server, use a try block for error handling: import pymongo connect_to_mongo = pymongo.MongoClient("mongodb://91.206.179.29:27017/") first_db = connect_to_mongo["mongo-db1"] try: first_db.command("serverStatus") except Exception as e: print(e) else: print("Successfully connected to MongoDB Server!") connect_to_mongo.close() Run: python3 connect_mongodb.py If the connection is successfully established, the script will return the message: "Successfully connected to MongoDB Server!" Add data to MongoDB. To add data, you need to create a dictionary. Let's create a dictionary named record1, containing three keys: record1 = { "name": "Alex", "age": 25, "location": "London" } To insert the dictionary data, use the insert_one method in MongoDB. insertrecord = collection1.insert_one(record1) import pymongo connect_to_mongo = pymongo.MongoClient("mongodb://91.206.179.29:27017/") db1 = connect_to_mongo["newdb"] collection1 = db1["userdata"] record1 = { "name": "Alex", "age": 25, "location": "London" } insertrecord = collection1.insert_one(record1) print(insertrecord) Run the script: python3 connect_mongodb.py ClickHouse and Python ClickHouse is a columnar NoSQL database where data is stored in columns rather than rows. It is widely used for handling analytical queries. Install the ClickHouse driver for Python. There is a dedicated plugin for ClickHouse called clickhouse-driver. Install the driver using the pip package manager: pip install clickhouse-driver Connect to ClickHouse. To initialize a connection with ClickHouse, you need to import the Client class from the clickhouse_driver library. To execute SQL queries, use the client.execute function. You also need to specify the engine. For more details on supported engines in ClickHouse, you can refer to the official documentation. We'll use the default engine, MergeTree. Next, create a new table called users and insert two columns with data. To list the data to be added to the table, use the tuple data type. After executing the necessary queries, make sure to close the connection to the database using the client.disconnect() method. The final code will look like this: from clickhouse_driver import Client client = Client(host=91.206.179.128', user='root', password='P@$$w0rd123', port=9000) client.execute(''' CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS Users ( id UInt32, name String, ) ENGINE = MergeTree() ORDER BY id ''') data = [ (1, 'Alice'), (2, 'Mary') ] client.execute('INSERT INTO Users (id, name) VALUES', data) result = client.execute('SELECT * FROM Users') for row in result: print(row) client.disconnect() Database Connection in Go Go is one of the youngest programming languages, developed in 2009 by Google.  It is widely used in developing microservice architectures and network utilities. For example, services like Docker and Kubernetes are written in Go. Go supports integrating all popular databases, including PostgreSQL, Redis, MongoDB, MySQL, ClickHouse, etc. MySQL and Go For working with the MySQL databases in Go, use the go-sql-driver/mysql driver. Create a new directory for storing project files and navigate into it: mkdir mysql-connect && cd mysql-connect Create a go.mod file to store the dependencies: go mod init golang-connect-mysql Download the MySQL driver using the go get command: go get -u github.com/go-sql-driver/mysql Create a new file named main.go. Specify the database connection details in the dsn variable: package main import ( "database/sql" "fmt" "log" _ "github.com/go-sql-driver/mysql" ) func main() { dsn := "root:password@tcp(localhost:3306)/testdb" db, err := sql.Open("mysql", dsn) if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } defer db.Close() if err := db.Ping(); err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } fmt.Println("Successfully connected to the database!") query := "INSERT INTO users (name, age) VALUES (?, ?)" result, err := db.Exec(query, "Alex", 25) if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } lastInsertID, err := result.LastInsertId() if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } fmt.Printf("Inserted data with ID: %d\n", lastInsertID) } PostgreSQL and Go To connect to PostgreSQL, use the pq driver. Before installing the driver, let's prepare our environment. Create a new directory for storing the project files and navigate into it: mkdir postgres-connect && cd postgres-connect Since we will be working with dependencies, we need to create a go.mod file to store them: go mod init golang-connect-postgres Download the pq driver using the go get command: go get github.com/lib/pq Create a new file named main.go. In addition to importing the pq library, it is necessary to add the database/sql library as Go does not come with official database drivers by default. The database/sql library consists of general, independent interfaces for working with databases. It is also important to note the underscore (empty identifier) when importing the pq module: _ "github.com/lib/pq" The empty identifier is used to avoid the "unused import" error, as in this case, we only need the driver to be registered in database/sql. The fmt package is required to output data to the standard output stream, for example, to the console. To open a connection to the database, the sql.Open function is used, which takes the connection string (connStr) and the driver name (postgres). The connection string specifies the username, database name, password, and host address: package main import ( "database/sql" "fmt" "log" _ "github.com/lib/pq" ) func main() { connStr := "user=golang dbname=db_for_golang password=Golanguserfordb0206$ host=47.45.249.146 sslmode=disable" db, err := sql.Open("postgres", connStr) if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } defer db.Close() err = db.Ping() if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } fmt.Println("Successfully connected to PostgreSQL!") } Compile and run: go run main.go If everything works correctly, the terminal will display the message Successfully connected to PostgreSQL! Now, let's look at an example of how to insert data into a table.  First, we need to create a table in the database. When using Hostman cloud databases, you can copy the PostgreSQL connection string displayed in the "Connections" section of the Hostman web interface. Make sure that the postgresql-client utility is installed on your device beforehand. Enter the psql shell and connect to the previously created database: \c db_for_golang Create a table named Cities with three fields — city_id, city_name, and city_population: CREATE TABLE Cities ( city_id INT PRIMARY KEY, city_name VARCHAR(45) NOT NULL, city_population INT NOT NULL); Grant full privileges to the created table for the user: GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON TABLE cities TO golang; The function db.Prepare is used to prepare data. It specifies the query for insertion in advance. To insert data, use the function stmt.Exec. In Go, it's common to use plain SQL without using the ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) approach. stmt, err := db.Prepare("INSERT INTO Cities(city_id, city_name, city_population) VALUES($1, $2, $3)") if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } defer stmt.Close() _, err = stmt.Exec(1, "Toronto", 279435) if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } fmt.Println("Data inserted successfully!") } If all works correctly, you will see: Data inserted successfully! Redis and Go To connect to Redis, you need to use the go-redis driver. Сreate a new directory: mkdir connect-to-redis && cd connect-to-redis Prepare the dependency file: go mod init golang-connect-redis And optimize them: go mod tidy Download the go-redis module: go get github.com/go-redis/redis/v8 To connect to Redis, use the redis.Options function to specify the address and port of the Redis server. Since Redis does not use authentication by default, you can leave the Password field empty and use the default database (database 0): package main import ( "context" "fmt" "log" "github.com/go-redis/redis/v8" ) func main() { rdb := redis.NewClient(&redis.Options{ Addr: "91.206.179.128:6379", Password: "", DB: 0, }) ctx := context.Background() _, err := rdb.Ping(ctx).Result() if err != nil { log.Fatalf("Couldn't connect to Redis: %v", err) } fmt.Println("Successfully connected to Redis!") } You should see the message «Successfully connected to Redis!» MongoDB and Go To work with MongoDB, we'll use the mongo driver. Create a new directory to store the project structure: mkdir connect-to-mongodb && cd connect-to-mongodb Initialize the dependency file: go mod init golang-connect-mongodb Download the mongo library: go get go.mongodb.org/mongo-driver/mongo Connect to MongoDB using the options.Client().ApplyURI method. It takes a connection string such as mongodb://91.206.179.29:27017, where 91.206.179.29 is the MongoDB server address and 27017 is the port for connecting to MongoDB. The options.Client().ApplyURI string is used only for specifying connection data. To check the connection status, you can use another function, client.Ping, which shows the success or failure of the connection: package main import ( "context" "fmt" "log" "time" "go.mongodb.org/mongo-driver/mongo" "go.mongodb.org/mongo-driver/mongo/options" ) func main() { clientOptions := options.Client().ApplyURI("mongodb://91.206.179.29:27017") client, err := mongo.Connect(context.TODO(), clientOptions) if err != nil { log.Fatalf("Couldn't connect to MongoDB server: %v", err) } fmt.Println("successfully connected to MongoDB!") ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 10*time.Second) defer cancel() err = client.Ping(ctx, nil) if err != nil { log.Fatalf("Could not ping MongoDB server: %v", err) } fmt.Println("Ping MongoDB server successfully!") } You should see the message: successfully connected to MongoDB!Ping MongoDB server successfully MongoDB uses collections to store data. You can create collections using the .Collection function.  Below, we will create a database called first-database and a collection called first-collection. The collection will have a new document, containing three keys: user-name, user-age, and user-email. collection := client.Database("first-database").Collection("first-collection") document := map[string]interface{}{ "user-name": "Alice", "user-age": 25, "user-email": "alice@corporate.com", } insertResult, err := collection.InsertOne(ctx, document) if err != nil { log.Fatalf("Couldn't insert new document: %v", err) } fmt.Printf("Inserted new document with ID: %v\n", insertResult.InsertedID) if err := client.Disconnect(ctx); err != nil { log.Fatalf("Could not disconnect from MongoDB: %v", err) } fmt.Println("Disconnected from MongoDB!") } If successful, you will see the Inserted new document message with the document ID.  ClickHouse and Go To work with ClickHouse, use the clickhouse-go driver. Create a new directory to store the project files and navigate to it: clickhouse-connect && cd clickhouse-connect Create a go.mod file to store the dependencies: go mod init golang-connect-clickhouse Download the Clickhouse driver using the command: go get github.com/ClickHouse/clickhouse-go/v2 Create a new file named main.go, where you will specify the connection data to ClickHouse. package main import ( "database/sql" "log" "github.com/ClickHouse/clickhouse-go/v2" ) func main() { dsn := "tcp://localhost:9000?username=user1&password=PasswordForuser175465&database=new_db" db, err := sql.Open("clickhouse", dsn) if err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } defer db.Close() if err := db.Ping(); err != nil { log.Fatal(err) } log.Println("Connected to ClickHouse!") } Database Connection in JavaScript In JavaScript, all connections to external services are made using the Node.js platform. Make sure that you have Node.js and the npm package manager installed on your device. MySQL and JavaScript To work with MySQL, use the mysql2 driver. Create a directory where we will store the project files: mkdir js-mysql-connect && cd js-mysql-connect Initialize the project: npm init -y Install the mysql2 library: npm install mysql2 Use the following code to connect to MySQL: const mysql = require('mysql2'); const connection_to_mysql = mysql.createConnection({ host: 'localhost', user: 'root', password: 'PasswordForRoot74463', database: db1, }); connection_to_mysql.connect((err) => { if (err) { console.error('Error connecting to MySQL:', err.message); return; } console.log('Successfully connected to MySQL Server!'); connection_to_mysql.end((endErr) => { if (endErr) { console.error('Error closing the connection_to_mysql:', endErr.message); } else { console.log('Connection closed.'); } }); }); PostgreSQL and JavaScript Connecting to PostgreSQL is done using the pg library. Create a directory where we will store the project files: mkdir js-postgres-connect && cd js-postgres-connect Initialize the project: npm init -y Install the pg library: npm install pg To connect to PostgreSQL, first import the pg library. Then, create a constant where you specify variables for the database address, username, password, database name, and port. Use the new pg.Client class to pass the connection data. We will create a table called cities and add two records into it. To do this, we will use the queryDatabase function, which contains the SQL queries. const pg = require('pg'); const config = { postgresql_server_host: '91.206.179.29', postgresql_user: 'gen_user', postgresql_user_password: 'PasswordForGenUser56467$', postgresql_database_name: 'default_db', postgresql_database_port: 5432, }; const client = new pg.Client(config); client.connect(err => { if (err) throw err; else { queryDatabase(); } }); function queryDatabase() { const query = ` DROP TABLE IF EXISTS cities; CREATE TABLE cities (id serial PRIMARY KEY, name VARCHAR(80), population INTEGER); INSERT INTO cities (name, population) VALUES ('Berlin', 3645000); INSERT INTO cities (name, population) VALUES ('Paris', 2161000); `; client .query(query) .then(() => { console.log('Table created successfully!'); client.end(console.log('Closed client connection')); }) .catch(err => console.log(err)) .then(() => { console.log('Finished execution, exiting now'); process.exit(); }); } Use this command to run the code: node connect-to-postgres.js Redis and JavaScript To work with Redis, use the ioredis library. Create a directory to store the project files: mkdir js-redis-connect && cd js-redis-connect Initialize the project: npm init -y Install the ioredis library: npm install ioredis To connect to Redis, import the ioredis library. Then create a constant named redis and specify the Redis server address. Inserting data, i.e., creating key-value objects, is done using an asynchronous function named setData, which takes two values — key and value, corresponding to the data format of the Redis system. const Redis = require('ioredis'); const redis = new Redis({ host: '91.206.179.29', port: 6379, password: 'UY+p8e?Kxmqqfa', }); async function setData(key, value) { try { await redis.set(key, value); console.log('Data successfully set'); } catch (error) { console.error('Error setting data:', error); } } async function getData(key) { try { const value = await redis.get(key); console.log('Data retrieved'); return value; } catch (error) { console.error('Error getting data:', error); } } (async () => { await redis.select(1); await setData('user', 'alex'); await getData('user'); redis.disconnect(); })(); Run: node connect-to-redis.js MongoDB and JavaScript To work with MongoDB, use the mongodb driver. Create a directory for storing the project files: mkdir js-mongodb-connect && cd js-mongodb-connect Initialize the project: npm init -y Install the mongodb library: npm install mongodb To connect to MongoDB, import the mongodb library. Specify the database address in the constant uri and pass the address into the MongoClient class. const { MongoClient } = require('mongodb'); const uri = "mongodb://91.206.179.29:27017"; const client = new MongoClient(uri, { useNewUrlParser: true, useUnifiedTopology: true }); async function connectToDatabase() { try { await client.connect(); console.log("Successfully connected to MongoDB!"); const database = client.db("myDatabase"); const collection = database.collection("myCollection"); const documents = await collection.find({}).toArray(); console.log("Documents found:", documents); } catch (error) { console.error("Error connecting to MongoDB:", error); } finally { await client.close(); console.log("Connection closed."); } } connectToDatabase(); ClickHouse and JavaScript To work with ClickHouse, use the clickhouse/client driver. Create a directory where we will store the project files: mkdir js-clickhouse-connect && cd js-clickhouse-connect Initialize the project: npm init -y Install the @clickhouse/client library: npm install @clickhouse/client To connect to ClickHouse, use the code below where we set the connection details and execute a simple SQL query that will return the first 10 records from the system table named system.tables: const { ClickHouse } = require('@clickhouse/client'); const client = new ClickHouse({ host: 'http://localhost:8123', username: 'default', password: 'PasswordforDefaultUser45435', database: 'default', }); async function connectAndQuery() { try { console.log('Successfully connected to ClickHouse Server!'); const rows = await client.query({ query: 'SELECT * FROM system.tables LIMIT 10', format: 'JSON', }).then((result) => result.json()); console.log('Query results:', rows); } catch (error) { console.error('Error Successfully connected to ClickHouse Server! or running the query:', error); } finally { console.log('Done.'); } } connectAndQuery(); Conclusion In today's article, we thoroughly explored how to connect to PostgreSQL, Redis, MongoDB, MySQL, and ClickHouse databases using Python, Go, and JavaScript. These languages can be used to create both web applications and microservices that utilize databases in their operation.

Go (Golang), like many other programming languages, has a built-in time package that provides special types and methods for working with dates and times. You can find comprehensive information about the time package in the official documentation. This guide will cover the basic aspects of working with time in Go.  All the examples shown were run on a cloud server provided by Hostman, using the Ubuntu 22.04 operating system and Go version 1.21.3. It is assumed that you are already familiar with the basics of Go and know how to run scripts using the appropriate interpreter command: go run script.go Parsing, Formatting, and Creating Dates Before getting started with time manipulation, it's important to understand a key feature of time formatting in Go. In most programming languages, date and time formats are specified using special symbols, which are replaced by values representing day, month, year, hour, minute, and second. However, Go approaches this differently. Instead of special symbols, it uses default date and time values represented by an increasing sequence of numbers: 01-02-03-04-05-06 This sequence of numbers represents: 1st month of the year (January) 2nd day of the month 3rd hour in 12-hour format (p.m.) 4th minute in 12-hour format (p.m.) 5th second in 12-hour format (p.m.) 6th year of the 21st century Thus, this results in the following time format: January 2nd, 3:04:05 PM, 2006 Or in another form: 02.01.2006 03:04:05 PM It is important to remember that this value is nothing more than a regular increasing sequence of numbers without any special significance. Therefore, this date and time act as a predefined layout for working with any explicitly specified date and time values. For example, here’s an abstract (not Go-specific) pseudocode example: currentTime = time.now() console.write("Current date: ", currentTime.format("%D.%M.%Y")) console.write("Current time: ", currentTime.format("%H:%M")) console.write("Current date and time: ", currentTime.format("%D.%M.%Y %H:%M")) In our pseudo-console, this would produce the following pseudo-output: Current date: 26.11.2024 Current time: 14:05 Current date and time: 26.11.2024 14:05 This is how date and time formatting works in most programming languages. In Go, however, the pseudocode would look like this: currentTime = time.now() console.write("Current date: ", currentTime.format("02.01.2006")) console.write("Current time: ", currentTime.format("03:04")) console.write("Current date and time: ", currentTime.format("02.01.2006 03:04")) The console output would be similar: Current date: 26.11.2024 Current time: 14:05 Current date and time: 26.11.2024 14:05 Here, the standard template values for date and time are automatically replaced with the actual date and time values. Additionally, template values have certain variations. For instance, you can specify the month 01 as Jan. Thanks to this approach, Go allows templates to be defined in a more intuitive and human-readable way. Parsing Working with time in Go starts by explicitly specifying it. This can be done using the time parsing function: package main import ( "fmt" // package for console I/O "time" // package for working with time "reflect" // package for determining variable types ) func main() { timeLayout := "2006-01-02" // time layout template timeValue := "2024-11-16" // time value to be parsed timeVariable, err := time.Parse(timeLayout, timeValue) // parsing time value using the template if err != nil { panic(err) // handling possible parsing errors } fmt.Println(timeVariable) // output the parsed time variable to the console fmt.Println(reflect.TypeOf(timeVariable)) // output the type of the time variable } When you run the script, the terminal will display the following output: 2024-11-16 00:00:00 +0000 UTC  time.Time Note that after parsing, a variable of type time.Time is created. This variable stores the parsed time value in its internal format. In the example shown, the time layout and value could be replaced with another equivalent format. func main() { timeLayout := "2006-Jan-02" timeValue:= "2024-Nov-16" ... The final result would remain the same. During parsing, an additional parameter can be specified to set the time zone, also known as the time offset or time zone: package main import ( "fmt" "time" ) func main() { // Local timeLocation, err := time.LoadLocation("Local") if err != nil { panic(err) } timeVariable, err := time.ParseInLocation("2006-01-02 15:04", "2024-11-16 07:45", timeLocation) if err != nil { panic(err) } fmt.Println("Local: ", timeVariable) // Asia/Bangkok timeLocation, err = time.LoadLocation("Asia/Bangkok") if err != nil { panic(err) } timeVariable, err = time.ParseInLocation("2006-01-02 15:04", "2024-11-16 07:45", timeLocation) if err != nil { panic(err) } fmt.Println("Asia/Bangkok: ", timeVariable) // Europe/Nicosia timeLocation, err = time.LoadLocation("Europe/Nicosia") if err != nil { panic(err) } timeVariable, err = time.ParseInLocation("2006-01-02 15:04", "2024-11-16 07:45", timeLocation) if err != nil { panic(err) } fmt.Println("Europe/Nicosia: ", timeVariable) } The console output of this script will be as follows: Local: 2024-11-16 07:45:00 +0000 UTC Asia/Bangkok: 2024-11-16 07:45:00 +0700 +07 Europe/Nicosia: 2024-11-16 07:45:00 +0300 EET Instead of explicitly creating a time zone variable, you can use a predefined constant: package main import ( "fmt" "time" ) func main() { // time.LoadLocation("Local") timeLocation, err := time.LoadLocation("Local") if err != nil { panic(err) } timeVariable, err := time.ParseInLocation("2006-01-02 15:04", "2024-11-16 07:45", timeLocation) if err != nil { panic(err) } fmt.Println(timeVariable) // time.Local timeVariable, err = time.ParseInLocation("2006-01-02 15:04", "2024-11-16 07:45", time.Local) if err != nil { panic(err) } fmt.Println(timeVariable) } In this case, the complete date and time values in both variants will be identical. 2024-11-16 07:45:00 +0000 UTC2024-11-16 07:45:00 +0000 UTC You can find a complete list of available time zones in the so-called Time Zone Database (tz database). Time zone identifiers are specified using two region names separated by a slash. For example: Europe/Nicosia Asia/Dubai US/Alaska Formatting We can format an already created time variable to represent its value as a specific text string. Thus, a variable of type time.Time has built-in methods for converting date and time into a string type. package main import ( "fmt" "time" ) func main() { timeLayout := "2006-01-02 15:04:05" timeValue := "2024-11-15 12:45:20" timeVariable, err := time.Parse(timeLayout, timeValue) if err != nil { panic(err) } fmt.Print("\r", "DATE", "\r\n") fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("2006-01-02")) fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("01/02/06")) fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("01/02/2006")) fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("20060102")) fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("010206")) fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("January 02, 2006")) fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("02 January 2006")) fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("02-Jan-2006")) fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("Jan-02-06")) fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("Jan-02-2006")) fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("06")) fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("Mon")) fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("Monday")) fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("Jan-06")) fmt.Print("\r", "TIME", "\r\n") fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("15:04")) fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("15:04:05")) fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("3:04 PM")) fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("03:04:05 PM")) fmt.Print("\r", "DATE and TIME", "\r\n") fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("2006-01-02T15:04:05")) fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("2 Jan 2006 15:04:05")) fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("2 Jan 2006 15:04")) fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format("Mon, 2 Jan 2006 15:04:05 MST")) fmt.Print("\r", "PREDEFINED FORMATS", "\r\n") fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format(time.RFC1123)) // predefined format fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format(time.Kitchen)) // predefined format fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format(time.Stamp)) // predefined format fmt.Println(timeVariable.Format(time.DateOnly)) // predefined format } Running this script will output various possible date and time formats in the terminal: DATE 2024-11-15 11/15/24 11/15/2024 20241115 111524 November 15, 2024 15 November 2024 15-Nov-2024 Nov-15-24 Nov-15-2024 24 Fri Friday Nov-24 TIME 12:45 12:45:20 12:45 PM 12:45:20 PM DATE and TIME 2024-11-15T12:45:20 15 Nov 2024 12:45:20 15 Nov 2024 12:45 Fri, 15 Nov 2024 12:45:20 UTC PREDEFINED FORMATS Fri, 15 Nov 2024 12:45:20 UTC 12:45PM Nov 15 12:45:20 2024-11-15 Pay attention to the last few formats, which are predefined as constant values. These constants provide commonly used date and time formats in a convenient, ready-to-use form. You can find a complete list of these constants in the official documentation. time.Layout 01/02 03:04:05PM '06 -0700 time.ANSIC Mon Jan _2 15:04:05 2006 time.UnixDate Mon Jan _2 15:04:05 MST 2006 time.RubyDate Mon Jan 02 15:04:05 -0700 2006 time.RFC822 02 Jan 06 15:04 MST time.RFC822Z 02 Jan 06 15:04 -0700 time.RFC850 Monday, 02-Jan-06 15:04:05 MST time.RFC1123 Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:04:05 MST time.RFC1123Z Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:04:05 -0700 time.RFC3339 2006-01-02T15:04:05Z07:00 time.RFC3339Nano 2006-01-02T15:04:05.999999999Z07:00 time.Kitchen 3:04PM time.Stamp Jan _2 15:04:05 time.StampMilli Jan _2 15:04:05.000 time.StampMicro Jan _2 15:04:05.000000 time.StampNano Jan _2 15:04:05.000000000 time.DateTime 2006-01-02 15:04:05 time.DateOnly 2006-01-02 time.TimeOnly 15:04:05 Another common method to format date and time in Go is by converting it to Unix time.  package main import ( "fmt" "time" "reflect" ) func main() { timeVariable := time.Unix(350, 50) // set Unix time to 350 seconds and 50 nanoseconds from January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 fmt.Println("Time:", timeVariable) // display time in UTC format timeUnix := timeVariable.Unix() timeUnixNano := timeVariable.UnixNano() fmt.Println("Time (UNIX, seconds):", timeUnix) // display time in Unix format (seconds) fmt.Println("Time (UNIX, nanoseconds):", timeUnixNano) // display time in Unix format (nanoseconds) fmt.Println("Time (type):", reflect.TypeOf(timeUnix)) // display the variable type for Unix time } After running this script, the following output will appear in the terminal: Time: 1970-01-01 00:05:50.00000005 +0000 UTC Time (UNIX, seconds): 350 Time (UNIX, nanoseconds): 350000000050 Time (type): int64 Note that the variable created to store the Unix time value is of type int64, not time.Time. Thus, by using formatting, you can perform conversions between string-based time and Unix time and vice versa: package main import ( "fmt" "time" ) func main() { timeString, _ := time.Parse("2006-01-02 15:04:05", "2024-11-15 12:45:20") fmt.Println(timeString.Unix()) timeUnix := time.Unix(12345, 50) fmt.Println(timeUnix.Format("2006-01-02 15:04:05")) } The console output of this script will display the results of conversions to and from Unix time: 17316747201970-01-01 03:25:45 Creation In Go, there is a more straightforward way to create a time.Time variable by explicitly setting the date and time parameters: package main import ( "fmt" "time" ) func main() { timeLocation, _ := time.LoadLocation("Europe/Vienna") // year, month, day, hour, minute, second, nanosecond, time zone timeVariable := time.Date(2024, 11, 20, 12, 30, 45, 50, timeLocation) fmt.Print(timeVariable) } After running this script, the following output will appear in the terminal: 2024-11-20 12:30:45.00000005 +0100 CET Current Date and Time In addition to manually setting arbitrary dates and times, you can set the current date and time: package main import ( "fmt" "time" "reflect" ) func main() { timeNow := time.Now() fmt.Println(timeNow) fmt.Println(timeNow.Format(time.DateTime)) fmt.Println(timeNow.Unix()) fmt.Println(reflect.TypeOf(timeNow)) } After running this script, the following output will appear in the terminal: 2024-11-27 17:08:18.195495127 +0000 UTC m=+0.000035621 2024-11-27 17:08:18 1732727298 time.Time As you can see, the time.Now() function creates the familiar time.Time variable, whose values can be formatted arbitrarily. Extracting Parameters The time.Time variable consists of several parameters that together form the date and time: Year Month Day Weekday Hour Minute Second Nanosecond Time zone Go provides a set of methods to extract and modify each of these parameters. Most often, you will need to retrieve specific parameters from an already created time variable: package main import ( "fmt" "time" "reflect" ) func main() { timeLayout := "2006-01-02 15:04:05" timeValue := "2024-11-15 12:45:20" timeVariable, _ := time.Parse(timeLayout, timeValue) fmt.Println("Year:", timeVariable.Year()) fmt.Println("Month:", timeVariable.Month()) fmt.Println("Day:", timeVariable.Day()) fmt.Println("Weekday:", timeVariable.Weekday()) fmt.Println("Hour:", timeVariable.Hour()) fmt.Println("Minute:", timeVariable.Minute()) fmt.Println("Second:", timeVariable.Second()) fmt.Println("Nanosecond:", timeVariable.Nanosecond()) fmt.Println("Time zone:", timeVariable.Location()) fmt.Println("") fmt.Println("Year (type):", reflect.TypeOf(timeVariable.Year())) fmt.Println("Month (type):", reflect.TypeOf(timeVariable.Month())) fmt.Println("Day (type):", reflect.TypeOf(timeVariable.Day())) fmt.Println("Weekday (type):", reflect.TypeOf(timeVariable.Weekday())) fmt.Println("Hour (type):", reflect.TypeOf(timeVariable.Hour())) fmt.Println("Minute (type):", reflect.TypeOf(timeVariable.Minute())) fmt.Println("Second (type):", reflect.TypeOf(timeVariable.Second())) fmt.Println("Nanosecond (type):", reflect.TypeOf(timeVariable.Nanosecond())) fmt.Println("Time zone (type):", reflect.TypeOf(timeVariable.Location())) } The console output of this script will be: Year: 2024 Month: November Day: 15 Weekday: Friday Hour: 12 Minute: 45 Second: 20 Nanosecond: 0 Time zone: UTC Year (type): int Month (type): time.Month Day (type): int Weekday (type): time.Weekday Hour (type): int Minute (type): int Second (type): int Nanosecond (type): int Time zone (type): *time.Location Thus, you can individually retrieve specific information about the date and time without needing to format the output before displaying it in the console. Note the types of the retrieved variables — all of them have the int type except for a few: Month (time.Month) Weekday (time.Weekday) Time zone (*time.Location) The last one (time zone) is a pointer. Modification, Addition, and Subtraction Modification You cannot change the parameters of date and time directly in an already created time.Time variable. However, you can recreate the variable with updated values, thus changing the existing date and time: package main import ( "fmt" "time" ) func main() { timeVariable := time.Now() fmt.Println(timeVariable) // year, month, day, hour, minute, second, nanosecond, time zone timeChanged := time.Date(timeVariable.Year(), timeVariable.Month(), timeVariable.Day(), timeVariable.Hour() + 14, timeVariable.Minute(), timeVariable.Second(), timeVariable.Nanosecond(), timeVariable.Location()) fmt.Println(timeChanged) } When running this script, the following output will appear: 2024-11-28 14:35:05.287957345 +0000 UTC m=+0.0000391312024-11-29 04:35:05.287957345 +0000 UTC In this example, 14 hours were added to the current time. This way, you can selectively update the time values in an existing time.Time variable. Change by Time Zone Sometimes, it is necessary to determine what the specified date and time will be in a different time zone. For this, Go provides a special method: package main import ( "fmt" "time" ) func main() { locationFirst, _ := time.LoadLocation("Europe/Nicosia") timeFirst := time.Date(2000, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, locationFirst) fmt.Println("Time (Europe/Nicosia)", timeFirst) locationSecond, _ := time.LoadLocation("America/Chicago") timeSecond := timeFirst.In(locationSecond) // changing the time zone and converting the date and time based on it fmt.Println("Time (America/Chicago)", timeSecond) } The result of running the script will produce the following console output: Time (Europe/Nicosia) 2000-01-01 00:00:00 +0200 EET Time (America/Chicago) 1999-12-31 16:00:00 -0600 CST Thus, we obtain new date and time values, updated according to the newly specified time zone. Addition and Subtraction Go does not have separate methods for date and time addition. Instead, you can add time intervals to an already created time.Time variable: package main import ( "fmt" "time" ) func main() { // current time timeVariable := time.Now() fmt.Println(timeVariable) // adding 5 days (24 hours * 5 days = 120 hours) timeChanged := timeVariable.Add(120 * time.Hour) fmt.Println(timeChanged) // subtracting 65 days (24 hours * 65 days = 1560 hours) timeChanged = timeVariable.Add(-1560 * time.Hour) fmt.Println(timeChanged) } Running this script will give the following output: 2024-12-05 08:42:01.927334604 +0000 UTC m=+0.000035141 2024-12-10 08:42:01.927334604 +0000 UTC m=+432000.000035141 2024-10-01 08:42:01.927334604 +0000 UTC m=-5615999.999964859 Note that when subtracting a sufficient number of days from the time.Time variable, the month is also modified. Also, the time.Hour variable actually has a special type, time.Duration: package main import ( "fmt" "time" "reflect" ) func main() { fmt.Println(reflect.TypeOf(time.Hour)) fmt.Println(reflect.TypeOf(120* time.Hour)) } The output after running the script will be: time.Durationtime.Duration However, modifying the date and time by adding or subtracting a large number of hours is not very clear. In some cases, it is better to use more advanced methods for changing the time: package main import ( "fmt" "time" ) func main() { timeVariable := time.Now() fmt.Println(timeVariable) // year, month, day timeChanged := timeVariable.AddDate(3, 2, 1) fmt.Println(timeChanged) // day timeChanged = timeChanged.AddDate(0, 0, 15) fmt.Println(timeChanged) // year, month timeChanged = timeChanged.AddDate(5, 1, 0) fmt.Println(timeChanged) // -year, -day timeChanged = timeChanged.AddDate(-2, 0, -10) fmt.Println(timeChanged) } After running this script, the output will look like this: 2024-11-28 17:51:45.769245873 +0000 UTC m=+0.000024921 2028-01-29 17:51:45.769245873 +0000 UTC 2028-02-13 17:51:45.769245873 +0000 UTC 2033-03-13 17:51:45.769245873 +0000 UTC 2031-03-03 17:51:45.769245873 +0000 UTC Subtraction Unlike addition, Go has specialized methods for subtracting one time.Time variable from another. package main import ( "fmt" "time" "reflect" ) func main() { timeFirst := time.Date(2024, 6, 14, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.Local) timeSecond := time.Date(2010, 3, 26, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.Local) timeDeltaSub := timeFirst.Sub(timeSecond) // timeFirst - timeSecond timeDeltaSince := time.Since(timeFirst) // time.Now() - timeFirst timeDeltaUntil := time.Until(timeFirst) // timeFirst - time.Now() fmt.Println("timeFirst - timeSecond =", timeDeltaSub) fmt.Println("time.Now() - timeFirst =", timeDeltaSince) fmt.Println("timeFirst - time.Now() =", timeDeltaUntil) fmt.Println("") fmt.Println(reflect.TypeOf(timeDeltaSub)) fmt.Println(reflect.TypeOf(timeDeltaSince)) fmt.Println(reflect.TypeOf(timeDeltaUntil)) } Console output: timeFirst - timeSecond = 124656h0m0s time.Now() - timeFirst = 4029h37m55.577746026s timeFirst - time.Now() = -4029h37m55.577746176s time.Duration time.Duration time.Duration As you can see, the result of the subtraction is the familiar time.Duration type variable. In fact, the main function for finding the difference is time.Time.Sub(), and the other two are just its derivatives: package main import ( "fmt" "time" ) func main() { timeVariable := time.Date(2024, 6, 14, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.Local) fmt.Println(time.Now().Sub(timeVariable)) fmt.Println(time.Since(timeVariable)) fmt.Println("") fmt.Println(timeVariable.Sub(time.Now())) fmt.Println(time.Until(timeVariable)) } Console output: 4046h10m53.144212707s 4046h10m53.144254987s -4046h10m53.144261117s -4046h10m53.144267597s You can see that the results of these described functions are identical. time.Time.Since() = time.Now().Sub(timeVariable) time.Time.Until() = timeVariable.Sub(time.Now()) Time Durations Individual time intervals (durations) in the time package are represented as a special variable of type time.Duration. Unlike time.Time, they store not full date and time but time intervals. With durations, you can perform some basic operations that modify their time parameters. Parsing Durations A duration is explicitly defined using a string containing time parameters: package main import ( "fmt" "time" ) func main() { // hours, minutes, seconds durationHMS, _ := time.ParseDuration("4h30m20s") fmt.Println("Duration (HMS):", durationHMS) // minutes, seconds durationMS, _ := time.ParseDuration("6m15s") fmt.Println("Duration (MS):", durationMS) // hours, minutes durationHM, _ := time.ParseDuration("2h45m") fmt.Println("Duration (HM):", durationHM) // hours, seconds durationHS, _ := time.ParseDuration("2h10s") fmt.Println("Duration (HS):", durationHS) // hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds, microseconds, nanoseconds durationFULL, _ := time.ParseDuration("6h50m40s30ms4µs3ns") fmt.Println("Full Duration:", durationFULL) } Output of the script: Duration (HMS): 4h30m20s Duration (MS): 6m15s Duration (HM): 2h45m0s Duration (HS): 2h0m10s Full Duration: 6h50m40.030004003s Note the last duration, which contains all possible time parameters in decreasing order of magnitude—hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds, microseconds, and nanoseconds. During parsing, each parameter is specified using the following keywords: Hours — h Minutes — m Seconds — s Milliseconds — ms Microseconds — µs Nanoseconds — ns Moreover, the order of specifying duration parameters does not affect it: package main import ( "fmt" "time" ) func main() { duration, _ := time.ParseDuration("7ms20s4h30m") fmt.Println("Duration:", duration) } Terminal output: Duration: 4h30m20.007s Formatting Durations In Go, we can represent the same duration in different units of measurement: package main import ( "fmt" "time" "reflect" ) func main() { duration, _ := time.ParseDuration("4h30m20s") fmt.Println("Duration:", duration) fmt.Println("") fmt.Println("In hours:", duration.Hours()) fmt.Println("In minutes:", duration.Minutes()) fmt.Println("In seconds:", duration.Seconds()) fmt.Println("In milliseconds:", duration.Milliseconds()) fmt.Println("In microseconds:", duration.Microseconds()) fmt.Println("In nanoseconds:", duration.Nanoseconds()) fmt.Println("") fmt.Println(reflect.TypeOf(duration.Hours())) fmt.Println(reflect.TypeOf(duration.Minutes())) fmt.Println(reflect.TypeOf(duration.Seconds())) fmt.Println(reflect.TypeOf(duration.Milliseconds())) fmt.Println(reflect.TypeOf(duration.Microseconds())) fmt.Println(reflect.TypeOf(duration.Nanoseconds())) } Output of the script: Duration: 4h30m20s In hours: 4.5055555555555555 In minutes: 270.3333333333333 In seconds: 16220 In milliseconds: 16220000 In microseconds: 16220000000 In nanoseconds: 16220000000000 float64 float64 float64 int64 int64 int64 As you can see, the parameters for hours, minutes, and seconds are of type float64, while the rest are of type int. Conclusion This guide covered the basic functions for working with dates and times in the Go programming language, all of which are part of the built-in time package. Thus, Go allows you to: Format dates and times Convert dates and times Set time zones Extract specific date and time parameters Set specific date and time parameters Add and subtract dates and times Execute code based on specific time settings For more detailed information on working with the time package, refer to the official Go documentation. In addition, you can deploy Go applications (such as Beego and Gin) on our app platform.