# Creating Your Own Type


Some people say, "Go is all about 'type.'" Go is a static programming language, and at the heart of a static programming language is that once you declare that a variable is of a certain type, that's static; it doesn't change.  
   
  
Let's try creating our own type in the [Go playground](https://play.golang.org/p/9Gv-WWADVj).

```go
package main

import (
	"fmt"
)

var a int
type hotdog int
var b hotdog

func main() {
	a = 42
	b = 43
	fmt.Println(a)
	fmt.Printf("%T\n", a)
	fmt.Println(b)
	fmt.Printf("%T\n", b)
}
```
This returns:
```
42
int
43
main.hotdog
```
So we can see that the value of `a` is `42` and it is of type `int`, and the value of `b` is 43 and it is of type `hotdog` from the package `main`.  
  
We created a type `hotdog` with the line `type hotdog int`, we _declared_ a variable of type `hotdog` with `var b hotdog`, we _assigned a value_ to the variable with `b = 43`  
  
Go is a static programming language, so if I want to now do something like assign the value of `b` to `a`, with `a = b` the compiler will complain. We cannot take the value of something of type `hotdog` and assign it to something that is of type `int`.  
  
```go
package main

import (
	"fmt"
)

var a int
type hotdog int
var b hotdog

func main() {
	a = 42
	b = a  // we cannot assign the value of a type int to a type hotdog
	fmt.Println(a)
	fmt.Printf("%T\n", a)
	fmt.Println(b)
	fmt.Printf("%T\n", b)
}
```
returns
`tmp/sandbox982815840/main.go:13: cannot use a (type int) as type hotdog in assignment`