Golang : How to pass map to html template and access the map's elements

For this tutorial, we will learn how to pass a map to text or html template and learn how to access the map's element. The first code snippet demonstrates the simplest way of creating a map, passing it to html/text template and access the map's element using the index keyword.

NOTE : The "index" can also be used for accessing slice and array.

NOTE : If you encounter "panic: assignment to entry in nil map" error. Use the make keyword to create your map instead. For example :

  var templateDataMap = make(map[string]interface{})

instead of

  var templateDataMap map[string]interface{}  
  //-- will cause panic: assignment to entry in nil map

Here you go!

---

 package main

 import (
  "html/template"
  "log"
  "os"
 )

 const html = `{{ index . 1 }}
 {{ index . 2 }}
 {{ index . 3 }}

 {{ index . 3 }}
 {{ index . 2 }}
 {{ index . 1 }}`

 func main() {

  Data := map[int]string{}

  Data[1] = "abc"
  Data[2] = "def"
  Data[3] = "ghi"

  firstTemplate, err := template.New("first").Parse(html)
  if err != nil {
 log.Fatalln(err)
  }
  err = firstTemplate.ExecuteTemplate(os.Stdout, "first", Data)
  if err != nil {
 log.Fatalln(err)
  }
 }

---

Output :

abc

def

ghi

ghi

def

abc

and the second code snippet demonstrates a slightly different way, but still produces the same output. The difference is that we will pass the map name as well. This will be useful in situation where we want to pass more than 1 map and able to distinguish them using the maps' names.

---

 package main

 import (
  "html/template"
  "log"
  "os"
 )

 const html = `
 {{ index .DataMap 1 }}
 {{ index .DataMap 2 }}
 {{ index .DataMap 3 }}

 {{ index .DataMap 3 }}
 {{ index .DataMap 2 }}
 {{ index .DataMap 1 }}

 `

 var templateDataMap = make(map[string]interface{})

 //var templateDataMap map[string]interface{}  -- will cause panic: assignment to entry in nil map

 func main() {
  DataMap := map[int]string{}

  DataMap[1] = "abc"
  DataMap[2] = "def"
  DataMap[3] = "ghi"

  templateDataMap["DataMap"] = DataMap // pass the map's name as well

  var secondTemplate = template.Must(template.New("second").Parse(html))

  if err := secondTemplate.ExecuteTemplate(os.Stdout, "second", templateDataMap); err != nil {
 log.Fatalln(err)
  }

 }

---

Output:

abc

def

ghi

ghi

def

abc

Hope this helps and happy coding!

Reference:

"index Returns the result of indexing its first argument by the following arguments. Thus "index x 1 2 3" is, in Go syntax, x1[2][3]. Each indexed item must be a map, slice, or array."

from https://golang.org/pkg/text/template/#hdr-Functions