What is channel buffer size?

go channel

The buffer size is the number of elements that can be sent to the channel without the send blocking. By default, a channel has a buffer size of 0 (you get this with make(chan int)). This means that every single send will block until another goroutine receives from the channel. A channel of buffer size 1 can hold 1 element until sending blocks, so you'd get

c := make(chan int, 1)
c <- 1 // doesn't block
c <- 2 // blocks until another goroutine receives from the channel

The following code illustrates the blocking of unbuffered channel:

// to see the diff, change 0 to 1
c := make(chan struct{}, 0)
go func() {
    time.Sleep(2 * time.Second)
    <-c
}()
start := time.Now()
c <- struct{}{} // block, if channel size is 0
elapsed := time.Since(start)
fmt.Printf("Elapsed: %v\n", elapsed)

You may play with the code here.

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "time"
)

func receiver(ch <-chan int) {
    time.Sleep(500 * time.Millisecond)
    msg := <-ch
    fmt.Printf("receive messages  %d from the channel\n", msg)
}

func main() {
    start := time.Now()
    zero_buffer_ch := make(chan int, 0)
    go receiver(zero_buffer_ch)
    zero_buffer_ch <- 444
    elapsed := time.Since(start)    
    fmt.Printf("Elapsed using zero_buffer channel: %v\n", elapsed)

    restart := time.Now()
    non_zero_buffer_ch := make(chan int, 1)
    go receiver(non_zero_buffer_ch)
    non_zero_buffer_ch <- 4444
    reelapsed := time.Since(restart)
    fmt.Printf("Elapsed using non zero_buffer channel: %v\n", reelapsed)
}

result:

receive messages 444 from the channel

Elapsed using zero_buffer channel: 505.6729ms

Elapsed using non zero_buffer channel: 0s

What is channel buffer size?

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