How do I split a string and use it as function arguments in Go?

Question

I have a string that is separated by spaces, in this example, its a command: ls -al.

Go has a method exec.Command that needs to accept this command as multiple arguments, I call it like so: exec.Command("ls", "-al")

Is there a way to take a arbitrary string, split it by spaces, and pass all of its values as arguments to the method?

Dave · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-27 04:14:53Z

6

I recently discovered a nice package that handles splitting strings exactly as the shell would, including handling quotes, etc: https://github.com/kballard/go-shellquote

answered May 27, 2018 at 4:14

Dave

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1 Comment

MarioVilas Over a year ago

This should be the accepted answer, every other answer here is wrong.

Arjan · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-26 22:01:36Z

5

You can pass any []T as a parameter of type ...T using foo... where foo is of type []T: spec

exec.Command is of type:

func Command(name string, arg ...string) *Cmd

In this case you will have to pass 1st argument (name) directly and you can expand the rest with ...:

args := strings.Fields(mystr) //or any similar split function
exec.Command(args[0], args[1:]...)

answered Jan 26, 2014 at 22:01

Arjan

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1 Comment

maxm Over a year ago

This doesn't deal with quoted portions of the input string

Kavu · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-26 21:47:05Z

0

I can answer the first part of your question — see strings.Fields.

answered Jan 26, 2014 at 21:47

Kavu

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2 Comments

Steven Lu Over a year ago

Thanks, haha. Now I just need to pass it along :)

MarioVilas Over a year ago

This won't work with quoted arguments.

Tyson · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-26 21:48:32Z

0

Yep. An example:

func main() {
    arguments := "arg1 arg2 arg3"

    split := strings.Split(arguments, " ")

    print(split...)
}

func print(args...string) {
    fmt.Println(args)
}

answered Jan 26, 2014 at 21:48

Tyson

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1 Comment

MarioVilas Over a year ago

This won't work if the arguments contain spaces (either because they are quoted or the spaces are escaped).

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