Go Maps Declaring and initializing a map

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Example

You define a map using the keyword map, followed by the types of its keys and its values:

// Keys are ints, values are ints.
var m1 map[int]int // initialized to nil

// Keys are strings, values are ints.
var m2 map[string]int // initialized to nil

Maps are reference types, and once defined they have a zero value of nil. Writes to nil maps will panic and reads will always return the zero value.

To initialize a map, use the make function:

m := make(map[string]int)

With the two-parameter form of make, it's possible to specify an initial entry capacity for the map, overriding the default capacity:

m := make(map[string]int, 30)

Alternatively, you can declare a map, initializing it to its zero value, and then assign a literal value to it later, which helps if you marshal the struct into json thereby producing an empty map on return.

m := make(map[string]int, 0)

You can also make a map and set its initial value with curly brackets ({}).

var m map[string]int = map[string]int{"Foo": 20, "Bar": 30}

fmt.Println(m["Foo"]) // outputs 20

All the following statements result in the variable being bound to the same value.

// Declare, initializing to zero value, then assign a literal value.
var m map[string]int
m = map[string]int{}

// Declare and initialize via literal value.
var m = map[string]int{}

// Declare via short variable declaration and initialize with a literal value.
m := map[string]int{}

We can also use a map literal to create a new map with some initial key/value pairs.

The key type can be any comparable type; notably, this excludes functions, maps, and slices. The value type can be any type, including custom types or interface{}.

type Person struct {
    FirstName string
    LastName  string
}

// Declare via short variable declaration and initialize with make.
m := make(map[string]Person)

// Declare, initializing to zero value, then assign a literal value.
var m map[string]Person
m = map[string]Person{}

// Declare and initialize via literal value.
var m = map[string]Person{}

// Declare via short variable declaration and initialize with a literal value.
m := map[string]Person{}


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