Snippet

Rate Limiting Concurrent Operations with time.Ticker

In Go, rate limiting can be implemented using time.Ticker. A ticker sends a signal over its channel C at a regular interval. By reading from ticker.C before handling each request, we block the loop until the next tick, ensuring that requests are processed at a steady, controlled rate without overloading downstream services.

snippet.go

package main
 
import (
	"fmt"
	"time"
)
 
func processRequests(requests <-chan int, rate time.Duration) {
	ticker := time.NewTicker(rate)
	defer ticker.Stop()
 
	for req := range requests {
		<-ticker.C
		fmt.Printf("Processed request %d at %s\n", req, time.Now().Format("15:04:05"))
	}
}

Breakdown

ticker := time.NewTicker(rate)

Creates a new ticker that delivers channel ticks at the specified rate duration.

defer ticker.Stop()

Ensures the ticker resources are cleaned up when the function returns to prevent resource leaks.

<-ticker.C

Blocks the execution loop until a tick is received from the ticker channel, enforcing the delay.

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Rate Limiting Concurrent Operations with time.Ticker

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