The Go blog: Go maps in action has an excellent explanation.
When iterating over a map with a range loop, the iteration order is not specified and is not guaranteed to be the same from one iteration to the next. Since Go 1 the runtime randomizes map iteration order, as programmers relied on the stable iteration order of the previous implementation. If you require a stable iteration order you must maintain a separate data structure that specifies that order.
Here's my modified version of example code: http://play.golang.org/p/dvqcGPYy3-
package main
import (
"fmt"
"sort"
)
func main() {
// To create a map as input
m := make(map[int]string)
m[1] = "a"
m[2] = "c"
m[0] = "b"
// To store the keys in slice in sorted order
keys := make([]int, len(m))
i := 0
for k := range m {
keys[i] = k
i++
}
sort.Ints(keys)
// To perform the opertion you want
for _, k := range keys {
fmt.Println("Key:", k, "Value:", m[k])
}
}
Output:
Key: 0 Value: b
Key: 1 Value: a
Key: 2 Value: c