title: What does the asterisk do in "Go"?
body: <p>I've been going through and trying to understand the examples on the <a href="http://golang.org/doc/go_tutorial.html" rel="noreferrer">Go website</a> and I keep coming across a special asterisk character in examples like this:</p>
  <pre><code>s := &quot;hello&quot;
  if s[1] != 'e' {
      os.Exit(1)
  }
  s = &quot;good bye&quot;
  var p *string = &amp;s
  *p = &quot;ciao&quot;
  </code></pre>
  <p>Also, I just noticed, what's with the <code>&amp;s</code>? Is it assignment by reference (I might be using PHP talk here)?</p>