Equivalent of Python string.format in Go?

Question

In Python, you can do this:

\"File {file} had error {error}\".format(file=myfile, error=err)

or this:

\"File %(file)s had e         


        

Answer 1

With strings.Replacer

Using strings.Replacer, implementing a formatter of your desire is very easy and compact.

func main() {
    file, err := "/data/test.txt", "file not found"

    log("File {file} had error {error}", "{file}", file, "{error}", err)
}

func log(format string, args ...string) {
    r := strings.NewReplacer(args...)
    fmt.Println(r.Replace(format))
}

Output (try it on the Go Playground):

File /data/test.txt had error file not found

We can make it more pleasant to use by adding the brackets to the parameter names automatically in the log() function:

func main() {
    file, err := "/data/test.txt", "file not found"

    log2("File {file} had error {error}", "file", file, "error", err)
}

func log2(format string, args ...string) {
    for i, v := range args {
        if i%2 == 0 {
            args[i] = "{" + v + "}"
        }
    }
    r := strings.NewReplacer(args...)
    fmt.Println(r.Replace(format))
}

Output (try it on the Go Playground):

File /data/test.txt had error file not found

Yes, you could say that this only accepts string parameter values. This is true. With a little more improvement, this won't be true:

func main() {
    file, err := "/data/test.txt", 666

    log3("File {file} had error {error}", "file", file, "error", err)
}

func log3(format string, args ...interface{}) {
    args2 := make([]string, len(args))
    for i, v := range args {
        if i%2 == 0 {
            args2[i] = fmt.Sprintf("{%v}", v)
        } else {
            args2[i] = fmt.Sprint(v)
        }
    }
    r := strings.NewReplacer(args2...)
    fmt.Println(r.Replace(format))
}

Output (try it on the Go Playground):

File /data/test.txt had error 666

A variant of this to accept params as a map[string]interface{} and return the result as a string:

type P map[string]interface{}

func main() {
    file, err := "/data/test.txt", 666

    s := log33("File {file} had error {error}", P{"file": file, "error": err})
    fmt.Println(s)
}

func log33(format string, p P) string {
    args, i := make([]string, len(p)*2), 0
    for k, v := range p {
        args[i] = "{" + k + "}"
        args[i+1] = fmt.Sprint(v)
        i += 2
    }
    return strings.NewReplacer(args...).Replace(format)
}

Try it on the Go Playground.

With text/template

Your template solution or proposal is also way too verbose. It can be written as compact as this (error checks omitted):

type P map[string]interface{}

func main() {
    file, err := "/data/test.txt", 666

    log4("File {{.file}} has error {{.error}}", P{"file": file, "error": err})
}

func log4(format string, p P) {
    t := template.Must(template.New("").Parse(format))
    t.Execute(os.Stdout, p)
}

Output (try it on the Go Playground):

File /data/test.txt has error 666

If you want to return the string (instead of printing it to the standard output), you may do it like this (try it on the Go Playground):

func log5(format string, p P) string {
    b := &bytes.Buffer{}
    template.Must(template.New("").Parse(format)).Execute(b, p)
    return b.String()
}

Using explicit argument indices

This was already mentioned in another answer, but to complete it, know that the same explicit argument index may be used arbitrary number of times and thus resulting in the same parameter substituted in multiple times. Read more about this in this question: Replace all variables in Sprintf with same variable