timeouts.go

// _Timeouts_ are important for programs that connect to
// external resources or that otherwise need to bound
// execution time. Implementing timeouts in Go is easy and
// elegant thanks to channels and `select`.

package main

import "time"
import "fmt"

func main() {

    // For our example, suppose we're executing an external
    // call that returns its result on a channel `c1`
    // after 2s.
    c1 := make(chan string, 1)
    go func() {
        time.Sleep(time.Second * 2)
        c1 <- "result 1"
    }()

    // Here's the `select` implementing a timeout.
    // `res := <-c1` awaits the result and `<-Time.After`
    // awaits a value to be sent after the timeout of
    // 1s. Since `select` proceeds with the first
    // receive that's ready, we'll take the timeout case
    // if the operation takes more than the allowed 1s.
    select {
    case res := <-c1:
        fmt.Println(res)
    case <-time.After(time.Second * 1):
        fmt.Println("timeout 1")
    }

    // If we allow a longer timeout of 3s, then the receive
    // from `c2` will succeed and we'll print the result.
    c2 := make(chan string, 1)
    go func() {
        time.Sleep(time.Second * 2)
        c2 <- "result 2"
    }()
    select {
    case res := <-c2:
        fmt.Println(res)
    case <-time.After(time.Second * 3):
        fmt.Println("timeout 2")
    }
}