I've spent many, many, many hours on this (measured in days, at this point)
and I'm convinced that Golang is missing a fundamental programming
capability, that of multidimensional associative arrays. Searching through
this forum's archives and other sites, I've found that I'm not the first
one to face this problem and no one who has posted about this has yet
received a decent response (at least, not one that I have found)! The best
responses consist either of maps that are, at most, two levels deep or maps
whose depth is known in advance and declared using something like
make(map[string]map[string]map[string]map[string]map[string]string) and
even in those cases, one cannot replace a map with just a string on any of
those levels.
This is a MAJOR missing feature in Golang.
In PHP, for example, multidimensional associative arrays are declarable and
usable in a single line of code. In Javascript, Objects can serve that
purpose and those serve as the foundation of pretty much the entire
language. HTML is built on the tree structure, which is essentially just a
multimentional array. The Internet is essentiallly built on it
multidimensional associative arrays! Take XML or JSON, both of which are
essentially multidimensional associative arrays. Take the file/folder
system on your desktop computers and on servers as another example. Take
relational database recordsets. I mean, the list goes on and on and on! How
can Golang not have a simple way to initialize, manipulate and maintain
multidimensional associative arrays?????
This is such a big problem that I've even spent time looking into alternate
options to Golang, such as Clojure, Erlang and Elixir, and I'm quite
certain others have followed my route. I am not about to give up on Golang
just yet, because it would mean a tremendous amount of rewriting what I've
already done and learning yet another new language, but this is a very
serious missing piece in Golang.
It's incredible that this has gone overlooked in Golang for so long. The
posts I found were from as early as 2012! This is a very disappointing
discovery. I have found many things about Golang that I really like and
many things about Golang that I really don't like, but the lack of
multidimensional associative arrays beats out even the lack of decent
global error handling! By the way, while I'm at it are there any libraries
for that?
Is there any of doing multidimensional associative arrays in Golang (beyond
two levels and without specifying the depth of the array or map in advance)
or am I wasting my time on this problem? If not, does anyone know if this
feature is planned for an upcoming version of Golang?
On Monday, September 12, 2016 at 1:28:26 AM UTC-4, davidmi...@gmail.com
wrote:
>
> *I have two Golang questions that I hope someone could help me out with.*
>
>
> *1) Am I misunderstanding Golang maps?*
>
>
> *I'm trying to translate a project from PHP to Golang for the websockets
> and the concurrency. *
>
>
> *However, I can't do this.....*
>
>
> * var MyArray [string]string*
>
>
> *Instead, I have to do this.....*
>
>
> * var MyMap map[string]string*
>
>
> *However, since the same array (map) would be used at least once for each
> call to the Golang code from the Front End, which occurs any time a user
> sends data to the Back End, I have been led to believe that I would have to
> lock and unlock the map for each use. Wouldn't that essentially break
> concurrency (or at least eliminate its benefits??? No other user's function
> could use this map until the current user's function is done with it. I'd
> be back to "single threaded" again (concurrently speaking). This would
> defeat much of the point in my switching the project from PHP to Golang. To
> maintain concurrency without blocking other users, one would have to avoid
> using maps. Arrays (maps) are central to programming. How does anyone get
> by in Golang without using Maps?????*
>
>
> *For example, if I do the following.....*
>
>
> *func MyFunc (whatever) *map[string]string *{*
>
>
> var MyMap map[string]string
>
>
> * // Do something with the map*
>
>
> * return MyMap*
>
>
> *}*
>
>
> *func CallingFunction (whatever) {*
>
>
> * MyReturnedMap := go MyFunc(whatever)*
>
>
> *}*
>
>
> *.....would I have to lock and unlock the map or are two separate
> instances of the map declared?*
>
>
> *Again, am** I misunderstanding Golang maps?*
>
>
> *2) Also, how would one build a multidimensional array with a string index
> (or even a map of maps) for something like a large file directory where the
> number of files, folders and levels are unknown at the outset (without
> repeatedly using the append function that apparently uses memory on an
> exponential scale of 2^x)? I've figured out how to do
> map[string]map[string]map[string]string, but one would have to know how
> many levels there would be, in advance, to be able to use something like
> that. Also, when I've tried that, I can't put a string on any level except
> for the last one, since the only data type that any level other than the
> last one will accept is another map! What if the map turns out to be only
> three levels deep for one path and five levels deep for another path?** I've
> tried the following, which I found online, but I can't dynamically add any
> new folders to the directory with any kind of ease. It seems that
> initializing the struct is the only way to get data into the struct without
> declaring a new struct for every manipulation!*
>
>
> *(Below code from
> **http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19080116/golang-tree-like-solution-for-filesystem
>
> <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19080116/golang-tree-like-solution-for-filesystem>)*
>
>
> package Websocket
>
> import "fmt"
>
> type File struct {
> Name string
> }
>
> type Folder struct {
> Name string
> Files []File
> Folders []Folder
> }
>
> func main() {
> root := Folder{
> Name: "Root",
> Files: []File{
> {"One"},
> {"Two"},
> },
> Folders: []Folder{
> {
> Name: "Empty",
> },
> },
> }
> fmt.Printf("Root %#v\n", root)
> }
>
>
> *Given the above, how would i now add another folder to the directory tree.
> Among many other variations, I've tried the following.....*
>
>
> *root.Folders[0].Name = "MyFirstFolder"*
>
>
> *.....but nothing I have tried has worked.*
>
>
> *What I've been trying to do is set up an array that looks like the
> following.....*
>
>
> *MyArray["Number of Sub Items"] = 6*
>
> *MyArray["Type of Sub Items"] = "Folders"*
>
> *MyArray[0] = "Folder 1"*
>
> *MyArray[1]** = "Folder 2"*
>
> *MyArray[2]** = "Folder 3"*
>
> *MyArray[3]** = "Folder 4"*
>
> *MyArray[4]** = "Folder 5"*
>
> *MyArray[6]** = "Folder 6"*
>
>
> *MyArray[3]**["Number of Sub Items"]** = 3*
>
> *MyArray["Type of Sub Items"] = "Folders"*
>
> *MyArray[3][0] = "Folder 1"*
>
> *MyArray[3][1]** = "Folder 2"*
>
> *MyArray[3][2]** = "Folder 3"*
>
>
> *Note that this problem is not exclusive to directory structure. Using
> directory structure is just a simple way to describe the problem I'm having.*
>
>
> *Alternatively**, are there any libraries that can do the above so that I
> don't have to "reinvent the wheel"?*
>
>
>
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