Serialize a map using a specific order - json

Question

I have a map that uses string for both key and value. I have an array of keys that specifies the order of the values of the map.
I want to serialize that map to a JSON, but keeping the order defined on the array.
There is a sample code here: http://play.golang.org/p/A52GTDY6Wx
I want to serialize it as:
{
"name": "John",
"age": "20"
}
But if I serialize the map directly, the keys are ordered alphabetically:
{
"age": "20",
"name": "John"
}
I can serialize it as an array of maps, thus keeping the order, however that generates a lot of undesired characters:
[
{
"name": "John"
},
{
"age": "20"
}
]
In my real code I need to serialize the results of a database query which is specified in a text file, and I need to maintain the column order. I cannot use structs because the columns are not known at compile time.
EDIT: I don't need to read the JSON later in the specified order. The generated JSON is meant to be read by people, so I just want it to be as humanly readable as possible.
I could use a custom format but JSON suits me perfectly for this.
Thanks!

Answer 1

You need to implement the json.Marshaler interface on a custom type. This has the advantage of playing well within other struct types.
Sorry, you're always going to have to write a little bit of JSON encoding code.
package main
import (
"bytes"
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
"log"
)
type KeyVal struct {
Key string
Val interface{}
}
// Define an ordered map
type OrderedMap []KeyVal
// Implement the json.Marshaler interface
func (omap OrderedMap) MarshalJSON() ([]byte, error) {
var buf bytes.Buffer
buf.WriteString("{")
for i, kv := range omap {
if i != 0 {
buf.WriteString(",")
}
// marshal key
key, err := json.Marshal(kv.Key)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
buf.Write(key)
buf.WriteString(":")
// marshal value
val, err := json.Marshal(kv.Val)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
buf.Write(val)
}
buf.WriteString("}")
return buf.Bytes(), nil
}
func main() {
dict := map[string]interface{}{
"orderedMap": OrderedMap{
{"name", "John"},
{"age", 20},
},
}
dump, err := json.Marshal(dict)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Printf("%s\n", dump)
}
Outputs
{"orderedMap":{"name":"John","age":20}}

Answer 2

For that specific requirement you really don't need to use json.Marshal at all, you can simply implement your own function like this:
type OrderedMap map[string]string
func (om OrderedMap) ToJson(order ...string) string {
buf := &bytes.Buffer{}
buf.Write([]byte{'{', '\n'})
l := len(order)
for i, k := range order {
fmt.Fprintf(buf, "\t\"%s\": \"%v\"", k, om[k])
if i < l-1 {
buf.WriteByte(',')
}
buf.WriteByte('\n')
}
buf.Write([]byte{'}', '\n'})
return buf.String()
}
func main() {
om := OrderedMap{
"age": "20",
"name": "John",
}
fmt.Println(om.ToJson("name", "age"))
}

Answer 3

Probably the easiest solution: https://github.com/iancoleman/orderedmap
Although it might be slow as it's mentioned here

Answer 4

Here is a MapSlice implementation similar to what YAML v2 offers. It can do both Marshal and Unmarshal.
https://github.com/mickep76/mapslice-json