How to Marshal a Map to XML in Go: Is a Struct the Only Way?

Marshall Map to XML in Go

Encountering an error while attempting to marshal a map to XML data? Take a look at this article for a solution.

The popular JSON-to-XML conversion is well-known for utilizing maps. However, when it comes to XML, things take a different turn. You might be left wondering why maps don't behave the same way in both situations. Is it true that using a Struct is the only viable solution here?

Solution

A brilliant solution was found using the xml.Marshaler type. Here's how it works:

1. Define a StringMap type: Create a custom type to represent your map, dubbed StringMap. This type will have a map[string]string underlying structure.
2. Implement the MarshalXML method: StringMap should implement the xml.Marshaler interface's MarshalXML method. This method translates a map into XML.
3. Encode map values: Loop through the map's key-value pairs, generating xml.StartElement tokens for each key and xml.CharData tokens for each value.
4. Flush and return: To write the XML tokens and flush the buffer, use the encoder's EncodeToken and Flush methods.

Once you've created a custom StringMap type that implements xml.Marshaler, marshalling the map to XML is as simple as:

<code class="go">output, err := xml.MarshalIndent(data, "", "  ")</code>

This method provides a convenient way to handle maps in XML marshalling, eliminating the need to resort to Structs.

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