When you assign a value to the method receiver, the value will not be reflected outside of the method itself. Values will be reflected in subsequent calls from the same method.

Example:

package main

import "fmt"

type demo struct {
 Val int
}

func (d *demo) change() {
 d = nil // Assignment to the method receiver propagates only to callees but not to callers
 d.myVal()
}

func (d *demo) myVal() {
 fmt.Printf("my val: %#v\n", d)
}

func (d demo) change2() {
 d = demo{} // Assignment to the method receiver doesn't propagate to other calls
 d.myVal()
}

func (d *demo) change3() {
 d.Val = 3
 d.myVal()
}

func main() {
 d := &demo{}
 d.myVal()
 d.change()
 d.myVal()
 d.Val = 2
 d.change2()
 d.myVal()
 d.change3()
 d.myVal()
}