How to clear a map in Go?

Question

I\'m looking for something like the c++ function .clear() for the primitive type map.

Or should I just create a new map instead?

Updat

Answer 1

Unlike C++, Go is a garbage collected language. You need to think things a bit differently.

When you make a new map

a := map[string]string{"hello": "world"}
a = make(map[string]string)

the original map will be garbage-collected eventually; you don't need to clear it manually. But remember that maps (and slices) are reference types; you create them with make(). The underlying map will be garbage-collected only when there are no references to it. Thus, when you do

a := map[string]string{"hello": "world"}
b := a
a = make(map[string]string)

the original array will not be garbage collected (until b is garbage-collected or b refers to something else).