Go, init custom type

Question

Suppose, I am writing a minesweeper game, and i have a struct to hold the game field, that contains a 2D array with mines. Suppose, i want to initialize it with some mines. Is there a way to say gameField GameField = new(GameField, 30), similar to what i'd do in java?

Here is some code to illustrate my point:

type GameField struct {
  field [20][20] int
}

func (this *GameField) scatterMines(numberOfMines int) {
  //some logic to place the numberOfMines mines randomly
}

What i want is to call an initializer and have that scatterMines func executed automatically.

Answer 1

A pattern I've seen in Go structs is a corresponding NewXxx method (e.g., image pkg):

type GameField struct {
  field [20][20] int
}

func NewGameField(numberOfMines int) *GameField {
  g := new(GameField)
  //some logic to place the numberOfMines mines randomly
  //...
  return g
}

func main() {
    g := NewGameField(30)
    //...
}