**Type conversion** of variables refers to storing the value of one data type in another. This normally occurs when the value of one variable is stored in another variable with a different data type. However, we cannot do this directly (implicit type conversion). 

#    
## Syntax
Below is the syntax for type conversion in Go.

```
T(v)
```
Here, the value `v` is converted to the type `T`.

#    
## Code

Let's look at a few examples of type conversion.

package main
import ("fmt"
        "strconv" //this library is used for type conversions for strings
) 


func main() {

  // declaring a variable with int data type  
  var num1 int = 5 
  fmt.Println(num1)
  
  // converting int to string using the built-in strconv.Itoa function
  var str1 string = strconv.Itoa(num1)
  
  fmt.Println(str1)

  //converting int to float64 
  var num2 float64 = float64(num1)

  fmt.Println(num2)

  // we can also use short variable declaration for type conversion

  num3:= 10 

  str2:= strconv.Itoa(num3)

  fmt.Println(num3, str2)
  
  
}

#    
## Explanation

- In *lines 1 to 4*, we import the relevant libraries.
- In *line 7*, we define our `main` function
- In *lines 10 and 11*, we declare and print an `int` variable.
- In *line 14*, we convert an `int` to `string` with the built-in `strconv.Itoa` function.
- In *line 16*, we print the converted `string` variable.
- In *line 19*, we use the `T(v)` syntax to convert the `int` variable to `float`.
- In *line 21*, we print the converted `float` variable.
- In *lines 25 to 29*, we use short variable declaration to perform the same principle of string conversion with `strconv.Itoa`.

#    
## Error on implicit type conversion

As mentioned before, Go does not implicitly change the data type of a variable and gives an error if we try to do so. 

Try running the following piece of code: 

package main
import "fmt"
/* For exercises uncomment the imports below */
// import "strconv"
// import "encoding/json"
func main() {
    var num1 int = 15

    fmt.Println(num1)

    //trying to store an int into float64 variable without explicitly stating the type
    var num2 float64 = num1
}

Here, we try to implicitly convert `num1` to `float` and are dealt with an error. Hence, we are required to specify the data type during conversion. 

Let's look at the same example with the correction: 

package main
import "fmt"
/* For exercises uncomment the imports below */
// import "strconv"
// import "encoding/json"
func main() {
    var num1 int = 15

    fmt.Println(num1)

    //explicitly stating the type now
    var num2 float64 = float64(num1)

    fmt.Println(num2)

}

How to perform type conversion in Go

Go requires explicit type conversion using T(v) syntax, as implicit conversion causes errors.