Take a look at type intList = []int in the code below. That’s an example of a Type Alias. Specifically, it’s a Type Alias for []int.

Okay, so now take a look at type Name1 []int, which is a named type … that’s different.

Playground



package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"reflect"
)

type intList = []int

// Here, forced to same type
func coerce(a intList, b intList) bool {
	if reflect.DeepEqual(b, a) {
		fmt.Printf("equal\n")
		return true
	}
	fmt.Printf("Not equal\n")
	return false
}

func main() {

	type Name1 []int

	a := intList{}
	a = append(a, 3)

	b := []int{}
	b = append(b, 3)

	f := Name1{}
	f = append(f, 3)

	coerce(f, b)
	// Above is equal

	// Below we expect this to be equal, and it is.
	if reflect.DeepEqual(b, a) {
		fmt.Printf("yes..equal\n")
	} else {
		fmt.Printf("not equal..\n")
	}

	// This is not equal
	if reflect.DeepEqual(f, a) {
		fmt.Printf("Never get here ...\n")
	} else {
		fmt.Printf("not equal..\n")
	}

}

Output:

equal
yes..equal
not equal..

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