I think Go has exactly C's semantics here. The following is valid syntax with the same semantics in both: array[i] = 9 *pointer = 9 array[i].fieldName =

I think Go has exactly C's semantics here. The following is valid syntax with the same semantics in both: array[i] = 9 *pointer = 9 array[i].fieldName = 9 (*pointer).fieldName = 9 structValue.fieldName = 9 pointer->fieldName = 9 // Go equivalent: pointer.fieldName = 9 // you can also create a pointer to any of these lvalues // in either language with & Go has some additional syntax in map[key], but that behaves more strangely (it's an lvalue in that you can assign to it - map[key] = value - but you can't create a pointer to it - &(map[key]) is invalid syntax).