[go] How to copy a map?

As stated in seong's comment:

Also see http://golang.org/doc/effective_go.html#maps. The important part is really the "reference to underlying data structure". This also applies to slices.

However, none of the solutions here seem to offer a solution for a proper deep copy that also covers slices.

I've slightly altered Francesco Casula's answer to accommodate for both maps and slices.

This should cover both copying your map itself, as well as copying any child maps or slices. Both of which are affected by the same "underlying data structure" issue. It also includes a utility function for performing the same type of Deep Copy on a slice directly.

Keep in mind that the slices in the resulting map will be of type []interface{}, so when using them, you will need to use type assertion to retrieve the value in the expected type.

Example Usage

copy := CopyableMap(originalMap).DeepCopy()

Source File (util.go)

package utils

type CopyableMap   map[string]interface{}
type CopyableSlice []interface{}

// DeepCopy will create a deep copy of this map. The depth of this
// copy is all inclusive. Both maps and slices will be considered when
// making the copy.
func (m CopyableMap) DeepCopy() map[string]interface{} {
    result := map[string]interface{}{}

    for k,v := range m {
        // Handle maps
        mapvalue,isMap := v.(map[string]interface{})
        if isMap {
            result[k] = CopyableMap(mapvalue).DeepCopy()
            continue
        }

        // Handle slices
        slicevalue,isSlice := v.([]interface{})
        if isSlice {
            result[k] = CopyableSlice(slicevalue).DeepCopy()
            continue
        }

        result[k] = v
    }

    return result
}

// DeepCopy will create a deep copy of this slice. The depth of this
// copy is all inclusive. Both maps and slices will be considered when
// making the copy.
func (s CopyableSlice) DeepCopy() []interface{} {
    result := []interface{}{}

    for _,v := range s {
        // Handle maps
        mapvalue,isMap := v.(map[string]interface{})
        if isMap {
            result = append(result, CopyableMap(mapvalue).DeepCopy())
            continue
        }

        // Handle slices
        slicevalue,isSlice := v.([]interface{})
        if isSlice {
            result = append(result, CopyableSlice(slicevalue).DeepCopy())
            continue
        }

        result = append(result, v)
    }

    return result
}

Test File (util_tests.go)

package utils

import (
    "testing"

    "github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
)

func TestCopyMap(t *testing.T) {
    m1 := map[string]interface{}{
        "a": "bbb",
        "b": map[string]interface{}{
            "c": 123,
        },
        "c": []interface{} {
            "d", "e", map[string]interface{} {
                "f": "g",
            },
        },
    }

    m2 := CopyableMap(m1).DeepCopy()

    m1["a"] = "zzz"
    delete(m1, "b")
    m1["c"].([]interface{})[1] = "x"
    m1["c"].([]interface{})[2].(map[string]interface{})["f"] = "h"

    require.Equal(t, map[string]interface{}{
        "a": "zzz", 
        "c": []interface{} {
            "d", "x", map[string]interface{} {
                "f": "h",
            },
        },
    }, m1)
    require.Equal(t, map[string]interface{}{
        "a": "bbb",
        "b": map[string]interface{}{
            "c": 123,
        },
        "c": []interface{} {
            "d", "e", map[string]interface{} {
                "f": "g",
            },
        },
    }, m2)
}