go-set

The go-set repository provides a set package containing a few generic Set implementations for Go.

PSA August 2024 - The v3 version of this package has been published, starting at tag version v3.0.0. A description of the changes including backwards incompatibilities can be found in #90

Requires go1.23 or later.

PSA October 2023 - The v2 version of this package has been published, starting at tag version v2.1.0. A description of the changes including backwards incompatibilities can be found in #73

Each implementation is optimal for a particular use case.

Set[T] is ideal for comparable types.

backed by map builtin
commonly used with string, int, simple struct types, etc.

HashSet[T] is useful for types that implement a Hash() function.

backed by map builtin
commonly used with complex structs
also works with custom HashFunc[T] implementations

TreeSet[T] is useful for comparable data (via CompareFunc[T])

backed by Red-Black Binary Search Tree
commonly used with complex structs with extrinsic order
efficient iteration in sort order
additional methods Min / Max / TopK / BottomK

This package is not thread-safe.

Documentation

The full go-set package reference is available on pkg.go.dev.

Install

go get github.com/hashicorp/go-set/v3@latest

import "github.com/hashicorp/go-set/v3"

Motivation

Package set helps reduce the boiler plate of using a map[<type>]struct{} as a set.

Say we want to de-duplicate a slice of strings

items := []string{"mitchell", "armon", "jack", "dave", "armon", "dave"}

A typical example of the classic way using map built-in:

m := make(map[string]struct{})
for _, item := range items {
  m[item] = struct{}{}
}
list := make([]string, 0, len(items))
for k := range m {
  list = append(list, k)
}

The same result, but in one line using package go-set.

list := set.From[string](items).Slice()

Set

The go-set package includes Set for types that satisfy the comparable constraint. Uniqueness of a set elements is guaranteed via shallow comparison (result of == operator).

Note: if pointers or structs with pointer fields are stored in the Set, they will be compared in the sense of pointer addresses, not in the sense of referenced values. Due to this fact the Set type is recommended to be used with builtin types like string, int, or simple struct types with no pointers. Set usage with pointers or structs with pointer is also possible if shallow equality is acceptable.

HashSet

The go-set package includes HashSet for types that implement a Hash() function. The custom type must satisfy HashFunc[H Hash] - essentially any Hash() function that returns a string or integer. This enables types to use string-y hash functions like md5, sha1, or even GoString(), but also enables types to implement an efficient hash function using a hash code based on prime multiples.

TreeSet

The go-set package includes TreeSet for creating sorted sets. A TreeSet may be used with any type T as the comparison between elements is provided by implementing CompareFunc[T]. The standard library cmp.Compare function provides a convenient implementation of CompareFunc for cmp.Ordered types like string or int. A TreeSet is backed by an underlying balanced binary search tree, making operations like in-order traversal efficient, in addition to enabling functions like Min(), Max(), TopK(), and BottomK().

Collection[T]

The Collection[T] interface is implemented by each of Set, HashSet, and TreeSet.

It serves as a useful abstraction over the common methods implemented by each set type.

Iteration

Starting with v3 each of Set, HashSet, and TreeSet implement an Items method. It can be used with the range keyword for iterating through each element in the set.

// e.g. print each element in the set
for _, item := range s.Items() {
  fmt.Println(item)
}

Set Examples

Below are simple example usages of Set

s := set.New[int](10)
s.Insert(1)
s.InsertSlice([]int{2, 3, 4})
s.Size()

s := set.From[string]([]string{"one", "two", "three"})
s.Contains("three")
s.Remove("one")

a := set.From[int]([]int{2, 4, 6, 8})
b := set.From[int]([]int{4, 5, 6})
a.Intersect(b)

HashSet Examples

Below are simple example usages of HashSet

(using a hash code)

type inventory struct {
    item   int
    serial int
}

func (i *inventory) Hash() int {
    code := 3 * item * 5 * serial
    return code
}

i1 := &inventory{item: 42, serial: 101}

s := set.NewHashSet[*inventory, int](10)
s.Insert(i1)

(using a string hash)

type employee struct {
    name string
    id   int
}

func (e *employee) Hash() string {
    return fmt.Sprintf("%s:%d", e.name, e.id)
}

e1 := &employee{name: "armon", id: 2}

s := set.NewHashSet[*employee, string](10)
s.Insert(e1)

TreeSet Examples

Below are simple example usages of TreeSet

ts := NewTreeSet[int](Compare[int])
ts.Insert(5)

type waypoint struct {
    distance int
    name     string
}

// compare implements CompareFunc
compare := func(w1, w2 *waypoint) int {
    return w1.distance - w2.distance
}

ts := NewTreeSet[*waypoint](compare)
ts.Insert(&waypoint{distance: 42, name: "tango"})
ts.Insert(&waypoint{distance: 13, name: "alpha"})
ts.Insert(&waypoint{distance: 71, name: "xray"})