How to Read and Write ZIP Archives in Go

Use the archive/zip package to create a Writer for writing and a Reader for reading ZIP archives. The following example demonstrates how to write a file to a ZIP archive and then read it back.

package main

import (
	"archive/zip"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"os"
)

func main() {
	// Write a ZIP file
	file, _ := os.Create("example.zip")
	defer file.Close()
	w := zip.NewWriter(file)
	defer w.Close()

	f, _ := w.Create("hello.txt")
	f.Write([]byte("Hello, World!"))

	// Read the ZIP file
	reader, _ := zip.OpenReader("example.zip")
	defer reader.Close()

	for _, f := range reader.File {
		if f.FileInfo().IsDir() {
			continue
		}
		rc, _ := f.Open()
		data, _ := io.ReadAll(rc)
		fmt.Printf("%s: %s\n", f.Name, string(data))
		rc.Close()
	}
}

The archive/zip package lets your Go program bundle multiple files into a single compressed ZIP file or extract them back out. Think of it like a digital suitcase: you pack files away to save space or organize them, then unpack them when you need to use them again. You use it whenever you need to archive data for storage or transfer.