How to import and use different packages of the same name

Question

import (
    "text/template"
    htemplate "html/template" // this is now imported as htemplate
)

Read more about it in the spec.

Answer by Mostafa is correct, however it demands some explanation. Let me try to answer it.

Your example code doesn't work because you're trying to import two packages with the same name, which is: " template ".

import "html/template"  // imports the package as `template`
import "text/template"  // imports the package as `template` (again)

Importing is a declaration statement:

• You can't declare the same name (terminology: identifier) in the same scope.

• In Go, import is a declaration and its scope is the file that's trying to import those packages.

• It doesn't work because of the same reason that you can't declare variables with the same name in the same block.

The following code works:

package main

import (
    t "text/template"
    h "html/template"
)

func main() {
    t.New("foo").Parse(`{{define "T"}}Hello, {{.}}!{{end}}`)
    h.New("foo").Parse(`{{define "T"}}Hello, {{.}}!{{end}}`)
}

The code above gives two different names to the imported packages with the same name. So, there are now two different identifiers that you can use: t for the text/template package, and h for the html/template package.

You can check it on the playground.