# How to embed the content of a file to a variable in Golang



In [this article](https://devmarkpro.com/working-big-files-golang/), we were talking about how to deal with a large file in Golang. But have you ever seen yourself in a situation that just wanted to read a file and load its entire content to a variable and work with it? I have been in the same situation a lot. For example for reading a specific configuration from a file and somehow, this file is always there! I mean you know that you need that file to build/run your application. Let's talk about it in code, Imagine we have a file named `config.txt` with the content below:

```
I am a file that you need me ;)
```

And wanted to read this file.

```go
package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"io/ioutil"
	"log"
	"os"
)

func main() {
	file, err := os.Open("config.txt")
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("missing config file: %v", err)
	}
	content, err := ioutil.ReadAll(file)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("could not read config file: %v", err)
	}
	fmt.Println(string(content))
}
// output: I am a file that you need me ;)
```

if the code above sounds familiar to you, I have great news for you, Go offers a better, nice, and shorter way to do that. There is a package called [embed](https://golang.org/pkg/embed/) do all of it for you in a single line. All you need is just pass the file path in a directive above your variable

```go
package main

import (
	_ "embed"
	"fmt"
)

//go:embed config.txt
var content string

func main() {
	fmt.Print(content)
}
// output: I am a file that you need me ;)
```

That's it! you have the content of the file in the content variable! do you need to have it in `[]byte`?  you just need to change your variable type.

```go
package main

import (
	_ "embed"
	"fmt"
)

//go:embed config.txt
var content []byte

func main() {
	fmt.Print(content)
}
// output: [73 32 97 109 32 97 32 102 105 108 101 32 116 104 97 116 32 121 111 117 32 110 101 101 100 32 109 101 32 59 41]                                                                    
```