How to pass an accumulator to a recursive func? - go

Question

(I'm new to Go.)
I am working on this leetcode problem: https://leetcode.com/problems/pascals-triangle/
package main
import "fmt"
func main() {
arrRes := [][]int{}
gen(5, arrRes)
fmt.Println(arrRes)
}
func gen(numRows int, arrRes [][]int) {
build(numRows, 0, arrRes)
}
func build(n int, level int, arrRes [][]int) {
if(n == level) {
return
}
arr := []int{}
if level == 0 {
arr = append(arr, 1)
} else if level == 1 {
arr = append(arr, 1, 1)
} else {
// get it out
tmp := arrRes[level-1]
arr = comb(tmp)
}
arrRes = append(arrRes, arr)
build(n, level+1, arrRes)
}
func comb(arr []int) []int{
// arr type init
tmpArr := []int{1}
for i:=1; i<len(arr); i++ {
sum := arr[i-1] + arr[i]
tmpArr = append(tmpArr, sum)
}
// go use val, not ref
tmpArr = append(tmpArr, 1)
return tmpArr;
}
I want to define an accumulated variable arrRes := [][]int{} and keep passing into the recursive function. I think Go is pass-by-value instead of pass-by-reference. Is there a way to keep this pattern?
I've got two alternative methods:
passing a global var.
pass a 2D array into the func then return the new 2D array.
https://github.com/kenpeter/go_tri/blob/master/tri_global.go
https://github.com/kenpeter/go_tri/blob/master/tri.go

Answer 1

A slice is (basically) three things: a length, a capacity, and a pointer to an underlying array. Everything in Go is pass-by-value, so when you pass a slice to a function you are passing its current length, current capacity, and the memory address of the pointer. Changes made to length and capacity inside the function are made to a copy, and will not affect the length and capacity of the slice that was passed as an argument in the function call.
Printing a slice doesn't print its underlying array, it prints the part of the underlying array that is visible in the slice (which could be none of it if len = 0), based on (1) the pointer to the first element in the underlying array that's supposed to be visible to the slice; and (2) the length in the slice variable.
If you are modifying the length or capacity of a slice inside a function and you want those changes to be visible outside the function, you can either return the slice to update the context outside the function, like append does:
numbers := append(numbers, 27)
Or you can pass in a pointer to a slice:
func ChangeNumbersLenOrCap(numbers *[]int) {
// make your changes, no return value required
}
For your program, it looks like you could get away with a pointer to a slice of int slices:
var arrRes *[][]int
...because you're not modifying the int slice across another function boundary. Some programs would need a pointer to a slice of pointers to int slices:
var arrRes *[]*[]int
Here are some simple edits to get you started:
arrRes := [][]int{}
gen(5, &arrRes)
fmt.Println(arrRes)
}
func gen(numRows int, arrRes *[][]int) {
// ...
func build(n int, level int, arrRes *[][]int) {
// ...
tmp := *arrRes[level-1]
// ...
*arrRes = append(*arrRes, arr)
build(n, level+1, arrRes)