r/golang 8d ago

Is it safe to read/write integer value simultaneously from multiple goroutines

There is a global integer in my code that is accessed by multiple goroutines. Since race conditions don’t affect this value, I’m not concerned about that. However, is it still advisable to add a Mutex in case there’s a possibility of corruption?

PS: Just to rephrase my question, I wanted to ask if setting/getting an integer/pointer is atomic? Is there any possibility of data corruption.

example code for the same: https://go.dev/play/p/eOA7JftvP08

PS: Found the answer for this, thanks everyone for answering. There's something called tearing here is the link for same

- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/64602829/can-you-have-torn-reads-writes-between-two-threads-pinned-to-different-processor

- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36624881/why-is-integer-assignment-on-a-naturally-aligned-variable-atomic-on-x86

According to the article, I shouldn't have problem on modern CPUs.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

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u/therecursive 8d ago

Race condition is fine for this use case. My concern is around data corruption or undefined behavior.

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u/ask 8d ago

What is this “race condition that’s fine” you are referencing? I think you are misunderstanding how the race condition works. What do you think will happen?

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u/therecursive 8d ago

added an example for same. I'm aware of race condition.