Embed Directive in Dart

Here’s the translation of the Go embed directive example to Dart, formatted in Markdown suitable for Hugo:

In Dart, there isn’t a direct equivalent to the Go embed directive. However, we can simulate similar functionality using assets in Flutter or by reading files at runtime. For this example, we’ll focus on reading files at runtime, which is more similar to the Go example.

First, let’s create a simple Dart program that reads files:

import 'dart:io';

void main() async {
  // Read the contents of 'single_file.txt'
  final fileString = await File('folder/single_file.txt').readAsString();
  print(fileString);

  final fileByte = await File('folder/single_file.txt').readAsBytes();
  print(String.fromCharCodes(fileByte));

  // Read multiple files from a folder
  final file1Content = await File('folder/file1.hash').readAsString();
  print(file1Content);

  final file2Content = await File('folder/file2.hash').readAsString();
  print(file2Content);
}

In this Dart program:

1. We use the dart:io library to work with files.

2. The main function is marked as async because file operations are asynchronous in Dart.

3. We use File('path').readAsString() to read file contents as a string, similar to the string variable in the original example.

4. We use File('path').readAsBytes() to read file contents as bytes, similar to the []byte in the original example.

5. We read multiple files from a folder by specifying their paths directly.

To run this example, you need to create the necessary files and folders:

$ mkdir -p folder
$ echo "hello dart" > folder/single_file.txt
$ echo "123" > folder/file1.hash
$ echo "456" > folder/file2.hash

Then, you can run the Dart program:

$ dart run main.dart
hello dart
hello dart
123
456

Note that this approach reads files at runtime, not at compile-time like Go’s embed directive. Dart and Flutter have different mechanisms for bundling assets with your application, which would be used in a real-world scenario to include files in your compiled application.

For Flutter applications, you would typically use the assets section in the pubspec.yaml file to include files in your app bundle, and then use rootBundle.loadString() or rootBundle.load() to access them at runtime. This is more similar to Go’s embed directive in terms of bundling files with your application.