为什么不能在Go“ init”中命名函数？

Question

So, today while I was coding I found out that creating a function with the name init generated an error method init() not found, but when I renamed it to startup it all worked fine.

Is the word "init" preserved for some internal operation in Go or am I'm missing something here?

Answer 1

Yes, the function init() is special. It is automatically executed when a package is loaded. Even the package main may contain one or more init() functions that are executed before the actual program begins: http://golang.org/doc/effective_go.html#init

It is part of the package initialization, as explained in the language specification: http://golang.org/ref/spec#Package_initialization

It is commonly used to initialize package variables, etc.