Q: map with string key and string or slice value? Newbee warning.
Can I make a map with a string key and "anything" as a value? The goal is to have a map of configuration data. This data can be either a single string (or boolean value or integer, but restricting this to a string is fine), or it can be an array of strings. Example: I'd like to store these items:
levels = 3
extra-directories = ["foo","bar","baz"]

The first option is always a single value (a string would be OK for me). The second option is zero or more values. 
The goal is to have a single map where I can store these values and when looking at the map, I could use switch x.(type) to find out what the value is.

A: interface{} is a type that accepts any type.
conf := map[string] interface{} {
    "name": "Default",
    "server": "localhost",
    "timeout": 120,
}

conf["name"] is an interface{} not a string, and conf["timeout"] is an interface{} not an int. You can pass conf["name"] to functions that take interface{} like fmt.Println, but you can't pass it to functions that take string like strings.ToUpper, unless you know that the interface{}'s value is a string (which you do) and assert it's type: 
name := conf["name"].(string)
fmt.Println("name:", strings.ToUpper(name))
server := conf["server"].(string)
fmt.Println("server:", strings.ToUpper(server))
timeout := conf["timeout"].(int)
fmt.Println("timeout in minutes:",  timeout / 60)


Another solution that might fit your problem is to define a struct:
type Config struct {
    Name string
    Server string
    Timeout int
}

Create configuration:
conf := Config{
    Name: "Default",
    Server: "localhost",
    Tiemout: 60,
}

Access configuration:
fmt.Println("name:", strings.ToUpper(conf.Name))
fmt.Println("server:", strings.ToUpper(cnf.Server))
fmt.Println("timeout in minutes:",  conf.Timeout / 60)


A: Yes, you can do that using a map having type map[string]interface{}.
