Compile error: cannot use res (type []chan x) as type []<-chan x in return argument

[scorsi]

What version of Go are you using (go version)?

$ go version
go version go1.14.4 darwin/amd64

Does this issue reproduce with the latest release?

Yes

What operating system and processor architecture are you using (go env)?

go env Output

$ go env
GO111MODULE=""
GOARCH="amd64"
GOBIN=""
GOCACHE="/Users/scorsi/Library/Caches/go-build"
GOENV="/Users/scorsi/Library/Application Support/go/env"
GOEXE=""
GOFLAGS=""
GOHOSTARCH="amd64"
GOHOSTOS="darwin"
GOINSECURE=""
GONOPROXY=""
GONOSUMDB=""
GOOS="darwin"
GOPATH="/Users/scorsi/go"
GOPRIVATE=""
GOPROXY="https://proxy.golang.org,direct"
GOROOT="/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.14.4/libexec"
GOSUMDB="sum.golang.org"
GOTMPDIR=""
GOTOOLDIR="/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.14.4/libexec/pkg/tool/darwin_amd64"
GCCGO="gccgo"
AR="ar"
CC="clang"
CXX="clang++"
CGO_ENABLED="1"
GOMOD=""
CGO_CFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_CPPFLAGS=""
CGO_CXXFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_FFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_LDFLAGS="-g -O2"
PKG_CONFIG="pkg-config"
GOGCCFLAGS="-fPIC -m64 -pthread -fno-caret-diagnostics -Qunused-arguments -fmessage-length=0 -fdebug-prefix-map=/var/folders/ld/l11ndr2d3xsclhqxbjjhmkbw0000gn/T/go-build147800266=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches -fno-common"

What did you do?

Check it out on play.golang.org

The code is as simple as that:

func myFunc() []<-chan int {
	var res []chan int
	return res
}

What did you expect to see?

When we don't use a slice, returning a receive-only channel works. Example:

func myFunc() <-chan int {
	var res chan int
	return res
}

Why it'sn't the case for slice of chan ?

What did you see instead?

A compile error.

[ianlancetaylor]

That is how the language works. The fact that you can assign chan int to <-chan int doesn't mean that you can assign []chan int to []<-chan int. The language rules are documented at https://golang.org/ref/spec#Assignability .

[scorsi]

Thanks for your comment, how could I achieve this ? By recreating another slice of channels in receive-only mode ? Could go infer the type here to avoid that ?

[ajr360]

@scorsi I found this issue as I have exactly the same problem. The only way around it that I found was to create a new slice and copy the elements from the []chan int to the []<-chan int one at a time, in a loop. Of course, this is ugly, slow (for a slice of millions of chans) and add a lot of unnecessary strain on the GC. I suggest you make a language change proposal.