proposal: x/dataunit: a standard package for parsing and formatting data size units (e.g., "MB", "GiB")

[OhJuhun]

Proposal Details

Hi,

I'd like to propose adding a standard package (e.g., x/dataunit) to handle parsing and formatting of data size units such as "MB", "KB", "GiB", etc.

Motivation:
Many Go projects need to handle data size expressions in configuration files, environment variables, command-line flags, and user interfaces. Currently, projects are either reimplementing similar parsing logic or depending on third-party modules (like github.com/alecthomas/units, github.com/docker/go-units). Having a standardized package would:

• Provide reliable parsing (e.g., "256MB" → int64)
• Support both SI and IEC standards (e.g., 1KB=1000B vs 1KiB=1024B)
• Enable consistent formatting (e.g., 1536000 → "1.5MB")
• Encourage best practices and reduce duplicated code across the community

Examples:

dataunit.Parse("2GB") // 2147483648, nil
dataunit.Format(1048576) // "1MB"
dataunit.Parse("512KiB") // 524288, nil

Prior Art:
This feature is popular in other languages and the Go ecosystem:

• Python: humanfriendly, byteutils
• Go: github.com/alecthomas/units, github.com/docker/go-units

Proposal:
Introduce a package (possibly x/dataunit) to support parsing strings and formatting integers as data sizes, covering both SI and IEC units.

Would the proposal consider contributions or feedback from the community, or is there a plan for implementation?

Thanks for considering!

[gabyhelp]

Related Issues

• proposal: bytes: add bytes.Size units #19375 (closed)

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[seankhliao]

they seen pretty fine as existing packages
https://go.dev/doc/faq#x_in_std

None of the advantages listed point to a need to shift the maintenance to the Go team.