To fix the “invalid operation: type *map[key]value does not support indexing” error in Golang, you need to “dereference the pointer to the map before using indexing”.
The error “invalid operation: type *map[key]value does not support indexing” in Go occurs when you are trying to access elements of a map using a pointer to the map instead of the map itself.
Reproduce the error
package main
import (
"fmt"
)
func main() {
myMap := make(map[string]int)
myMap["one"] = 1
myMap["two"] = 2
pointerToMap := &myMap
// The following line causes an error
fmt.Println("Value for key 'one':", pointerToMap["one"])
}
Output
invalid operation: cannot index pointerToMap (variable of type *map[string]int)
Fixed code
package main
import (
"fmt"
)
func main() {
myMap := make(map[string]int)
myMap["one"] = 1
myMap["two"] = 2
pointerToMap := &myMap
// Dereference the pointer before indexing
fmt.Println("Value for key 'one':", (*pointerToMap)["one"])
}
Output
Value for key 'one': 1
In this fixed code, we dereferenced the pointer to the map using (*pointerToMap) before accessing the element with the key “one”.
Remember to “dereference the pointer to the map before using indexing” to access its elements.

Krunal Lathiya is a Software Engineer with over eight years of experience. He has developed a strong foundation in computer science principles and a passion for problem-solving. In addition, Krunal has excellent knowledge of Distributed and cloud computing and is an expert in Go Language.