Are the variables passed to "html/template" passed by reference, by value, or by the original type of the variable?

[Willy]

I understand that maps in Go are passed by reference, but what happens if a 1GB map is a variable to execute a template with “html/template”?

Will another 1GB copy be made in memory before executing it in the template? or will it be passed by reference?

[jauhararifin]

but what happens if a 1GB map is a variable to execute a template with “html/template”?

I don’t quite understand this sentence. But, I assume what you meant is you pass the map as the map to Execute function. In that case, it will be passed by reference, no copy needed.

[Willy]

Yes, I was referring to the Execute function. Thanks for the information.

[oahshtsua (Aashutosh)]

Here are a few interesting articles:

• There is no pass-by-reference in Go
• If a map isn’t a reference variable, what is it?

So technically, the idea of a reference might be incorrect but nonetheless, no copy of the underlying data is made.

[jauhararifin]

Good articles there. Yes, there is no reference in Golang. What we thought as pass-by-reference is actually pass-by-value, but the value is pointer. This is true for other languages like javascript, java, python, etc. I only know reference in C++ and Rust.

[Willy]

I got a little bit confused, please just tell me one thing, if I run a template with a 1GB map no other copy of the map will be made in RAM, right?

[mje (Jeff Emanuel)]

There is no copy made by passing the map to Execute. However, depending on your template and the Writer that you pass to Execute, you may end up with a serialized version of your map in memory. See Go Playground - The Go Programming Language

[ZionMaggio]

@oahshtsua

Here are a few interesting articles:

• [There is no pass-by-reference in Go ]
• [If a map isn’t a reference variable, what is it? ]

In Go’s html/template, variables are passed by value, not reference. A 1GB map passed to a template does not create an additional copy in memory; the template operates on the original data passed. I recently used https://canadianwritings.com/ for a term paper, and I was impressed with the quality of work they provided. The writer did a thorough job, and the paper was well-structured and informative. The customer support team was also very responsive and helpful throughout the process. Highly recommended!

So technically, the idea of a reference might be incorrect but nonetheless, no copy of the underlying data is made.

Thanks for those links, you made my day