What is the difference between goroutines and threads?

The main differences between Go goroutines and threads are as follows:

1. Lightweight: Go goroutines are lightweight and can create millions of them without significantly impacting performance, unlike the relatively higher overhead of creating and destroying threads.
2. Stack space: Each Go coroutine requires only a few KB of stack space, while threads require larger stack space (usually in the MB range), allowing for the creation of more coroutines.
3. Scheduling: Go goroutines are scheduled by the Go runtime, while threads are scheduled by the operating system. The Go runtime uses an M:N scheduling model, where M goroutines are mapped to N operating system threads. This scheduling model allows for more efficient scheduling of Go goroutines.
4. Communication: Go coroutines communicate via channels, while threads require shared memory for communication. Communicating through channels can avoid issues such as race conditions and deadlocks.
5. Concurrency: Go routines can execute concurrently on a single thread, whereas threads require concurrent execution on multiple cores or processors. Therefore, Go routines are more flexible and efficient in terms of concurrency.
6. Error handling: Go coroutines can capture and handle exceptions through channels, while threads need to use try-catch statements to capture exceptions. This makes Go coroutines easier to write and maintain. In conclusion, compared to threads, Go coroutines are more lightweight, efficient, flexible, and secure, making them suitable for high-concurrency scenarios and concurrent programming.