Go: Append if unique

Question

Is there a way to check slices/maps for the presence of a value?

I would like to add a value to a slice only if it does not

Answer 1

Your approach would take linear time for each insertion. A better way would be to use a map[int]struct{}. Alternatively, you could also use a map[int]bool or something similar, but the empty struct{} has the advantage that it doesn't occupy any additional space. Therefore map[int]struct{} is a popular choice for a set of integers.

Example:

set := make(map[int]struct{})
set[1] = struct{}{}
set[2] = struct{}{}
set[1] = struct{}{}
// ...

for key := range(set) {
  fmt.Println(key)
}
// each value will be printed only once, in no particular order


// you can use the ,ok idiom to check for existing keys
if _, ok := set[1]; ok {
  fmt.Println("element found")
} else {
  fmt.Println("element not found")
}