Blog / Go Language Spec

Using maps

May 12, 2023

Today I’m jumping around a bit, for the sake of coherence.

Map types

… [Map] elements may be added during execution using assignments and retrieved with index expressions; they may be removed with the delete built-in function.

A new, empty map value is made using the built-in function make, …

Let’s summarize with examples. We’ll dive into details as the relevant portions of the spec come up.

To create a map, you use the built-in function make:

x := make(map[string]string)  // x is an empty map of string to string

Not mentioned in this section, you can also create a map with a composite literal expression:

x := map[string]string{} // x is an empty map of string to string
y := map[string]string{  // y is a map of string to string with two key/value pairs
  "cow": "moo",
  "pig": "oink",
}

To read a map value, you use an index expression:

sound := y["cow"] // sound equals "moo"

To assign a value (or re-assign, if the key already exists), you use an assignment statement:

y["duck"] = "quack" // y now contains three key/value pairs

And to delete a value, you use the built-in delete function:

delete(y, "pig") // y now contains two key/value pairs

And finally one last usability note:

… A nil map is equivalent to an empty map except that no elements may be added.

A nil map can be created by declaring a variable without an assignment:

var z map[string]string // z is a nil map of string to string
z["foo"] = "bar"        // Runtime panic: assignment to entry in nil map

Quotes from The Go Programming Language Specification Version of December 15, 2022

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