Golang React JS Technology Blog

Golang Maps

❮ Previous Next ❯

In this tutorial you will learn what is a map data type and when to use it in Golang.

A map is a data structure that provides you with an unordered collection of key/value pairs (maps are also sometimes called associative arrays in Php, hash tables in Java, or dictionaries in Python). Maps are used to look up a value by its associated key. You store values into the map based on a key.

The strength of a map is its ability to retrieve data quickly based on the key. A key works like an index, pointing to the value you associate with that key.

A map is implemented using a hash table, which is providing faster lookups on the data element and you can easily retrieve a value by providing the key. Maps are unordered collections, and there's no way to predict the order in which the key/value pairs will be returned. Every iteration over a map could return a different order.

Map initialization

In Golang maps are written with curly brackets, and they have keys and values. Creating an instance of a map data type.

Example

package main
 
import "fmt"
 
var employee = map[string]int{"Mark": 10, "Sandy": 20}
 
func main() {
	fmt.Println(employee)
}

Empty Map declaration

Map employee created having string as key-type and int as value-type

Example

package main
 
import "fmt"
 
func main() {
	var employee = map[string]int{}
	fmt.Println(employee)        // map[]
	fmt.Printf("%T\n", employee) // map[string]int
}

Map declaration using make function

The make function takes as argument the type of the map and it returns an initialized map.

Example

package main
 
import "fmt"
 
func main() {
	var employee = make(map[string]int)
	employee["Mark"] = 10
	employee["Sandy"] = 20
	fmt.Println(employee)
 
	employeeList := make(map[string]int)
	employeeList["Mark"] = 10
	employeeList["Sandy"] = 20
	fmt.Println(employeeList)
}

Map Length

To determine how many items (key-value pairs) a map has, use built-in len() function.

Example

package main
 
import "fmt"
 
func main() {
	var employee = make(map[string]int)
	employee["Mark"] = 10
	employee["Sandy"] = 20
 
	// Empty Map
	employeeList := make(map[string]int)
 
	fmt.Println(len(employee))     // 2
	fmt.Println(len(employeeList)) // 0
}

The len() function will return zero for an uninitialized map.

Accessing Items

You can access the items of a map by referring to its key name, inside square brackets.

Example

package main
 
import "fmt"
 
func main() {
	var employee = map[string]int{"Mark": 10, "Sandy": 20}
 
	fmt.Println(employee["Mark"])
}

Adding Items

Adding an item to the map is done by using a new index key and assigning a value to it.

Example

package main
 
import "fmt"
 
func main() {
	var employee = map[string]int{"Mark": 10, "Sandy": 20}
	fmt.Println(employee) // Initial Map
 
	employee["Rocky"] = 30 // Add element
	employee["Josef"] = 40
 
	fmt.Println(employee)
}

Update Values

You can update the value of a specific item by referring to its key name.

Example

Changed the "Mark" to 50

package main
 
import "fmt"
 
func main() {
	var employee = map[string]int{"Mark": 10, "Sandy": 20}
	fmt.Println(employee) // Initial Map
 
	employee["Mark"] = 50 // Edit item
	fmt.Println(employee)
}

Delete Items

The built-in delete function deletes an item from a given map associated with the provided key.

Example

package main
 
import "fmt"
 
func main() {
	var employee = make(map[string]int)
	employee["Mark"] = 10
	employee["Sandy"] = 20
	employee["Rocky"] = 30
	employee["Josef"] = 40
 
	fmt.Println(employee)
 
	delete(employee, "Mark")
	fmt.Println(employee)
}

Iterate over a Map

The for…range loop statement can be used to fetch the index and element of a map.

Example

Each iteration returns a key and its correlated element content.

package main
 
import "fmt"
 
func main() {
    var employee = map[string]int{"Mark": 10, "Sandy": 20,
        "Rocky": 30, "Rajiv": 40, "Kate": 50}
    for key, element := range employee {
        fmt.Println("Key:", key, "=>", "Element:", element)
    }
}

Truncate Map

There are two methods to clear all items from a Map.

Example

package main
 
func main() {
	var employee = map[string]int{"Mark": 10, "Sandy": 20,
		"Rocky": 30, "Rajiv": 40, "Kate": 50}
 
	// Method - I
	for k := range employee {
		delete(employee, k)
	}
 
	// Method - II
	employee = make(map[string]int)
}

Sort Map Keys

A Keys slice created to store keys value of map and then sort the slice. The sorted slice used to print values of map in key order.

Example

package main
 
import (
	"fmt"
	"sort"
)
 
func main() {
	unSortedMap := map[string]int{"India": 20, "Canada": 70, "Germany": 15}
 
	keys := make([]string, 0, len(unSortedMap))
 
	for k := range unSortedMap {
		keys = append(keys, k)
	}
	sort.Strings(keys)
 
	for _, k := range keys {
		fmt.Println(k, unSortedMap[k])
	}
}

Sort Map Values

To sort the key values of a map, you need to store them in Slice and then sort the slice.

Example

package main
 
import (
	"fmt"
	"sort"
)
 
func main() {
	unSortedMap := map[string]int{"India": 20, "Canada": 70, "Germany": 15}
 
 // Int slice to store values of map.
	values := make([]int, 0, len(unSortedMap))
 
	for _, v := range unSortedMap {
		values = append(values, v)
	}
 
 // Sort slice values.
	sort.Ints(values)
 
 // Print values of sorted Slice.
	for _, v := range values {
		fmt.Println(v)
	}
}

Merge Maps

The keys and values of second map getting added in first map.

Example

package main
 
import "fmt"
 
func main() {
	first := map[string]int{"a": 1, "b": 2, "c": 3}
	second := map[string]int{"a": 1, "e": 5, "c": 3, "d": 4}
 
	for k, v := range second {
		first[k] = v
	}
 
	fmt.Println(first)
}
❮ Previous Next ❯