Golang : Of hash table and hash map

A short note for myself. Was looking to build a knowledge base consisting of a keyword or key string and then lookup for the nearest possible string answer.

This kind situation calls for a hash table and was looking for hash table equivalent in Golang and ....just found out that Golang's map is equivalent to other programming languages hash map or hash table! #facepalm to myself.

In general, a hash map is useful as it offers fast lookups, adds, and deletes. In Golang, the built-in map type has these properties.

NOTE : Map types are reference types, like pointers or slices, and so the value of m above is nil; it doesn't point to an initialized map. A nil map behaves like an empty map when reading, but attempts to write to a nil map will cause a runtime panic; don't do that. To initialize a map, use the built in make function:

 m = make(map[string]int)

Reference :

http://blog.golang.org/go-maps-in-action