create two dimensional string array in golang - go

Question

I need to create a 2 dimensional string array as shown below -
matrix = [['cat,'cat','cat'],['dog','dog']]
Code:-
package main
import (
"fmt"
)
func main() {
{ // using append
var matrix [][]string
matrix[0] = append(matrix[0],'cat')
fmt.Println(matrix)
}
}
Error:-
panic: runtime error: index out of range
goroutine 1 [running]:
main.main()
/tmp/sandbox863026592/main.go:11 +0x20

Answer 1

You have a slice of slices, and the outer slice is nil until it's initialized:
matrix := make([][]string, 1)
matrix[0] = append(matrix[0],'cat')
fmt.Println(matrix)
Or:
var matrix [][]string
matrix = append(matrix, []string{"cat"})
fmt.Println(matrix)
Or:
var matrix [][]string
var row []string
row = append(row, "cat")
matrix = append(matrix, row)

Answer 2

The problem with doing two-dimensional arrays with Go is that you have to initialise each part individually, e.g., if you have a [][]bool, you gotta allocate []([]bool) first, and then allocate the individual []bool afterwards; this is the same logic regardless of whether you're using make() or append() to perform the allocations.
In your example, the matrix[0] doesn't exist yet after a mere var matrix [][]string, hence you're getting the index out of range error.
For example, the code below would create another slice based on the size of an existing slice of a different type:
func solve(board [][]rune, …) {
x := len(board)
y := len(board[0])
visited := make([][]bool, x)
for i := range visited {
visited[i] = make([]bool, y)
}
…
If you simply want to initialise the slice based on a static array you have, you can do it directly like this, without even having to use append() or make():
package main
import (
"fmt"
)
func main() {
matrix := [][]string{{"cat", "cat", "cat"}, {"dog", "dog"}}
fmt.Println(matrix)
}
https://play.golang.org/p/iWgts-m7c4u