Avoid panic, when trying to insert a value to a closed channel - go

package main
import (
"fmt"
"time"
)
func fib() chan int {
c := make(chan int)
go func() {
c <- 0
c <- 1
n, m := 0, 1
for {
temp := n + m
n = m
m = temp
c <- m // This results in panic, when the channel is closed
}
}()
return c
}
func main() {
start := time.Now()
var lastFib int
c := fib()
for i := 0; i != 1000000; i++ {
lastFib = <-c
}
close(c)
fmt.Println(lastFib)
fmt.Println(time.Now().Sub(start))
}
In the most idiomatic way, how would one avoid the panic in the goroutine, when the channel is closed? Or should i avoid using close at all?
I'm not looking into alternative methods (such as closures) to achieve the same thing, just trying to get a better understanding of channels.

Close is a good way for the goroutine sending into a channel to signal the receiving side that you are done with this channel. The other way around (your problem) is IMHO undoable, at least direct. You could add an other channel done which signal end of duty to your fibonacci generating goroutine.

Here is a modified version of your example that uses channels in an allowed (though not necessarily sensible) way:
package main
import (
"fmt"
"time"
)
func fib(c chan int) {
c <- 0
c <- 1
n, m := 0, 1
for {
temp := n + m
n = m
m = temp
c <- m
if m > 100000000 {
close(c)
break
}
}
}
func main() {
start := time.Now()
lastFib, newFib := 0, 0
ok := true
c := make(chan int)
go fib(c)
for {
newFib, ok = <-c
if !ok {
fmt.Println(lastFib)
break
}
lastFib = newFib
}
fmt.Println(time.Now().Sub(start))
}

Related

Values sent over channel are not seen as received

The code below starts a few workers. Each worker receives a value via a channel which is added to a map where the key is the worker ID and value is the number received. Finally, when I add all the values received, I should get an expected result (in this case 55 because that is what you get when you add from 1..10). In most cases, I am not seeing the expected output. What am I doing wrong here? I do not want to solve it by adding a sleep. I would like to identify the issue programmatically and fix it.
type counter struct {
value int
count int
}
var data map[string]counter
var lock sync.Mutex
func adder(wid string, n int) {
defer lock.Unlock()
lock.Lock()
d := data[wid]
d.count++
d.value += n
data[wid] = d
return
}
func main() {
fmt.Println(os.Getpid())
data = make(map[string]counter)
c := make(chan int)
for w := 1; w <= 3; w++ { //starting 3 workers here
go func(wid string) {
data[wid] = counter{}
for {
v, k := <-c
if !k {
continue
}
adder(wid, v)
}
}(strconv.Itoa(w)) // worker is given an ID
}
time.Sleep(1 * time.Second) // If this is not added, only one goroutine is recorded.
for i := 1; i <= 10; i++ {
c <- i
}
close(c)
total := 0
for i, v := range data {
fmt.Println(i, v)
total += v.value
}
fmt.Println(total)
}
Your code has two significant races:
The initialization of data[wid] = counter{} is not synchronized with other goroutines that may be reading and rewriting data.
The worker goroutines do not signal when they are done modifying data, which means your main goroutine may read data before they finish writing.
You also have a strange construct:
for {
v, k := <-c
if !k {
continue
}
adder(wid, v)
}
k will only be false when the channel c is closed, after which the goroutine spins as much as it can. This would be better written as for v := range c.
To fix the reading code in the main goroutine, we'll use the more normal for ... range c idiom and add a sync.WaitGroup, and have each worker invoke Done() on the wait-group. The main goroutine will then wait for them to finish. To fix the initialization, we'll lock the map (there are other ways to do this, e.g., to set up the map before starting any of the goroutines, or to rely on the fact that empty map slots read as zero, but this one is straightforward). I also took out the extra debug. The result is this code, also available on the Go Playground.
package main
import (
"fmt"
// "os"
"strconv"
"sync"
// "time"
)
type counter struct {
value int
count int
}
var data map[string]counter
var lock sync.Mutex
var wg sync.WaitGroup
func adder(wid string, n int) {
defer lock.Unlock()
lock.Lock()
d := data[wid]
d.count++
d.value += n
data[wid] = d
}
func main() {
// fmt.Println(os.Getpid())
data = make(map[string]counter)
c := make(chan int)
for w := 1; w <= 3; w++ { //starting 3 workers here
wg.Add(1)
go func(wid string) {
lock.Lock()
data[wid] = counter{}
lock.Unlock()
for v := range c {
adder(wid, v)
}
wg.Done()
}(strconv.Itoa(w)) // worker is given an ID
}
for i := 1; i <= 10; i++ {
c <- i
}
close(c)
wg.Wait()
total := 0
for i, v := range data {
fmt.Println(i, v)
total += v.value
}
fmt.Println(total)
}
(This can be improved easily, e.g., there's no reason for wg to be global.)
Well, I like #torek's answer but I wanted to post this answer as it contains a bunch of improvements:
Reduce the usage of locks (For such simple tasks, avoid locks. If you benchmark it, you'll notice a good difference because my code uses the lock only numworkers times).
Improve the naming of variables.
Remove usage of global vars (Use of global vars should always be as minimum as possible).
The following code adds a number from minWork to maxWork using numWorker spawned goroutines.
package main
import (
"fmt"
"sync"
)
const (
bufferSize = 1 // Buffer for numChan
numworkers = 3 // Number of workers doing addition
minWork = 1 // Sum from [minWork] (inclusive)
maxWork = 10000000 // Sum upto [maxWork] (inclusive)
)
// worker stats
type worker struct {
workCount int // Number of times, worker worked
workDone int // Amount of work done; numbers added
}
// workerMap holds a map for worker(s)
type workerMap struct {
mu sync.Mutex // Guards m for safe, concurrent r/w
m map[int]worker // Map to hold worker id to worker mapping
}
func main() {
var (
totalWorkDone int // Total Work Done
wm workerMap // WorkerMap
wg sync.WaitGroup // WaitGroup
numChan = make(chan int, bufferSize) // Channel for nums
)
wm.m = make(map[int]worker, numworkers)
for wid := 0; wid < numworkers; wid++ {
wg.Add(1)
go func(id int) {
var wk worker
// Wait for numbers
for n := range numChan {
wk.workCount++
wk.workDone += n
}
// Fill worker stats
wm.mu.Lock()
wm.m[id] = wk
wm.mu.Unlock()
wg.Done()
}(wid)
}
// Send numbers for addition by multiple workers
for i := minWork; i <= maxWork; i++ {
numChan <- i
}
// Close the channel
close(numChan)
// Wait for goroutines to finish
wg.Wait()
// Print stats
for k, v := range wm.m {
fmt.Printf("WorkerID: %d; Work: %+v\n", k, v)
totalWorkDone += v.workDone
}
// Print total work done by all workers
fmt.Printf("Work Done: %d\n", totalWorkDone)
}

how to use channel inside paralleled for-loop

func parallelSum (c chan int){
sum := 0
for i :=1 ; i< 100;i++{
go func(i int){
sum += i
}(i)
}
time.Sleep(1*time.Second)
c <- sum
}
I'm trying to learn the parallel ability to speed up things like OpenMP. And here is an example of the intended summing up parallel loop in Go, this function runs as a goroutine.
Note that the variable sum is not a channel here, so does this mean the variable sum access inside the for loop is a blocked operation? Is it now efficient enough? Is there a better solution?
I knew the channel feature was designed for this, my obviously wrong implement below can compile, but with 100 runtime errors like following.
goroutine 4 [chan receive]:
main.parallelSumError(0xc0000180c0)
/home/tom/src/goland_newproject/main.go:58 +0xb4 //line 58 : temp := <-sum
created by main.main
/home/tom/src/goland_newproject/main.go:128 +0x2ca //line 128: go parallelSumError(pcr), the calling function
So what's the problem here? it seems summing is not a good example for paralleled for-loop, but actually I wish to know how to use channel inside paralleled for-loop.
func parallelSum (c chan int){
sum := make(chan int)
for i :=1 ; i< 100;i++{
go func(i int){
temp := <- sum //error here why?
temp += i
sum <- temp
}(i)
}
time.Sleep(1*time.Second)
temp := <-sum
c <- temp
}
both with the same main function
func main(){
pc := make(chan int)
go parallelSum(pc)
result = <- pc
fmt.Println("parallel result:", result)
}
I don't like the idea of summing numbers through channels. I'd rather use something classical like sync.Mutex or atomic.AddUint64. But, at least, I made your code working.
We aren't able to pass a value from one channel to another (I added temp variable). Also, there is sync.WaitGroup and other stuff.
But I still don't like the idea of the code.
package main
import (
"fmt"
"sync"
)
func main() {
pc := make(chan int)
go parallelSum(pc)
result := <- pc
fmt.Println("parallel result:", result)
}
func parallelSum (c chan int){
sum := make(chan int)
wg := sync.WaitGroup{}
wg.Add(100)
for i :=1 ; i <= 100;i++{
go func(i int){
temp := <- sum
temp += i
wg.Done()
sum <- temp
}(i)
}
sum <- 0
wg.Wait()
temp := <- sum
c <- temp
}
When using go routines (i.e. go foo()), it is preferable to use communication over memory-sharing. In this matter, as you mention, channels are the golang way to handle communication.
For your specific application, the paralleled sum similar to OpenMP, it would be preferable to detect the number of CPUs and generate as many routines as wished:
package main
import (
"fmt"
"runtime"
)
func main() {
numCPU := runtime.NumCPU()
sumc := make(chan int, numCPU)
valuec := make(chan int)
endc := make(chan interface{}, numCPU)
// generate go routine per cpu
for i := 0; i < numCPU; i++ {
go sumf(sumc, valuec, endc)
}
// generate values and pass it through the channels
for i := 0; i < 100; i++ {
valuec <- i
}
// tell go routines to end up when they are done
for i := 0; i < numCPU; i++ {
endc <- nil
}
// sum results
sum := 0
for i := 0; i < numCPU; i++ {
procSum := <-sumc
sum += procSum
}
fmt.Println(sum)
}
func sumf(sumc, valuec chan int, endc chan interface{}) {
sum := 0
for {
select {
case i := <-valuec:
sum += i
case <-endc:
sumc <- sum
return
}
}
}
Hopefully, this helps.

goroutine value return order [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Golang channel output order
(4 answers)
Closed 4 years ago.
Why following codes always return 2,1, not 1,2.
func test(x int, c chan int) {
c <- x
}
func main() {
c := make(chan int)
go test(1, c)
go test(2, c)
x, y := <-c, <-c // receive from c
fmt.Println(x, y)
}
If you want to know what the order is, then let your program include ordering information
This example uses a function closure to generate a sequence
The channel returns a struct of two numbers, one of which is a sequence order number
The sequence incrementer should be safe across go routines as there is a mutex lock on the sequence counter
package main
import (
"fmt"
"sync"
)
type value_with_order struct {
v int
order int
}
var (
mu sync.Mutex
)
func orgami(x int, c chan value_with_order, f func() int) {
v := new(value_with_order)
v.v = x
v.order = f()
c <- *v
}
func seq() func() int {
i := 0
return func() int {
mu.Lock()
defer mu.Unlock()
i++
return i
}
}
func main() {
c := make(chan value_with_order)
sequencer := seq()
for n := 0; n < 10; n++ {
go orgami(1, c, sequencer)
go orgami(2, c, sequencer)
go orgami(3, c, sequencer)
}
received := 0
for q := range c {
fmt.Printf("%v\n", q)
received++
if received == 30 {
close(c)
}
}
}
second version where the sequence is called from the main loop to make the sequence numbers come out in the order that the function is called
package main
import (
"fmt"
"sync"
)
type value_with_order struct {
v int
order int
}
var (
mu sync.Mutex
)
func orgami(x int, c chan value_with_order, seqno int) {
v := new(value_with_order)
v.v = x
v.order = seqno
c <- *v
}
func seq() func() int {
i := 0
return func() int {
mu.Lock()
defer mu.Unlock()
i++
return i
}
}
func main() {
c := make(chan value_with_order)
sequencer := seq()
for n := 0; n < 10; n++ {
go orgami(1, c, sequencer())
go orgami(2, c, sequencer())
go orgami(3, c, sequencer())
}
received := 0
for q := range c {
fmt.Printf("%v\n", q)
received++
if received == 30 {
close(c)
}
}
}

How can we determine when the "last" worker process/thread is finished in Go?

I'll use a hacky inefficient prime number finder to make this question a little more concrete.
Let's say our main function fires off a bunch of "worker" goroutines. They will report their results to a single channnel which prints them. But not every worker will report something so we can't use a counter to know when the last job is finished. Or is there a way?
For the concrete example, here, main fires off goroutines to check whether the values 2...1000 are prime (yeah I know it is inefficient).
package main
import (
"fmt"
"time"
)
func main() {
c := make(chan int)
go func () {
for {
fmt.Print(" ", <- c)
}
}()
for n := 2; n < 1000; n++ {
go printIfPrime(n, c)
}
time.Sleep(2 * time.Second) // <---- THIS FEELS WRONG
}
func printIfPrime(n int, channel chan int) {
for d := 2; d * d <= n; d++ {
if n % d == 0 {
return
}
}
channel <- n
}
My problem is that I don't know how to reliably stop it at the right time. I tried adding a sleep at the end of main and it works (but it might take too long, and this is no way to write concurrent code!). I would like to know if there was a way to send a stop signal through a channel or something so main can stop at the right time.
The trick here is that I don't know how many worker responses there will be.
Is this impossible or is there a cool trick?
(If there's an answer for this prime example, great. I can probably generalize. Or maybe not. Maybe this is app specific?)
Use a WaitGroup.
The following code uses two WaitGroups. The main function uses wgTest to wait for print_if_prime functions to complete. Once they are done, it closes the channel to break the for loop in the printing goroutine. The main function uses wgPrint to wait for printing to complete.
package main
import (
"fmt"
"sync"
)
func main() {
c := make(chan int)
var wgPrint, wgTest sync.WaitGroup
wgPrint.Add(1)
go func(wg *sync.WaitGroup) {
defer wg.Done()
for n := range c {
fmt.Print(" ", n)
}
}(&wgPrint)
for n := 2; n < 1000; n++ {
wgTest.Add(1)
go print_if_prime(&wgTest, n, c)
}
wgTest.Wait()
close(c)
wgPrint.Wait()
}
func print_if_prime(wg *sync.WaitGroup, n int, channel chan int) {
defer wg.Done()
for d := 2; d*d <= n; d++ {
if n%d == 0 {
return
}
}
channel <- n
}
playground example

What is the correct way to write a distinct channel in Go?

I am a beginner in go.
I am trying to figure out an easy way to implement a channel that only output distinct values.
What I want to do is this:
package example
import (
"fmt"
"testing"
)
func TestShouldReturnDistinctValues(t *testing.T) {
var c := make([]chan int)
c <- 1
c <- 1
c <- 2
c <- 2
c <- 3
for e := range c {
// only print 1, 2 and 3.
fmt.println(e)
}
}
Should I be concern about memory leak here if I were to use a map to remember previous values?
You really can't do that, you'd have to keep a track of the values somehow, a map[int]struct{} is probably the most memory efficient way.
A simple example:
func UniqueGen(min, max int) <-chan int {
m := make(map[int]struct{}, max-min)
ch := make(chan int)
go func() {
for i := 0; i < 1000; i++ {
v := min + rand.Intn(max)
if _, ok := m[v]; !ok {
ch <- v
m[v] = struct{}{}
}
}
close(ch)
}()
return ch
}
I have done similar things before, except my problem was output inputs in ascending order. You can do this by adding a middle go routine. Here is an example:
package main
func main() {
input, output := distinct()
go func() {
input <- 1
input <- 1
input <- 2
input <- 2
input <- 3
close(input)
}()
for i := range output {
println(i)
}
}
func distinct() (input chan int, output chan int) {
input = make(chan int)
output = make(chan int)
go func() {
set := make(map[int]struct{})
for i := range input {
if _, ok := set[i]; !ok {
set[i] = struct{}{}
output <- i
}
}
close(output)
}()
return
}

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