Avoid superfluous else

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Metadata

ID: go-best-practices/superfluous-else

Language: Go

Severity: Info

Category: Best Practices

Description

Sometimes, the else block of an if is unnecessary and can be avoided, especially when there is a return statement inside the if block will be executed and the function will terminate. Hence, there is no need to explicitly specify the else clause.

By removing the else clause, the code becomes more concise and easier to read. It eliminates redundancy and makes the intention of the code clearer.

To avoid such situations, it is a good coding practice to write code with the fewest possible branches. This makes the code easier to understand and minimizes the chance of introducing bugs.

Non-Compliant Code Examples

func main() {
    if foo {
        return
    } else {
        return 2
    }
}
func main() {
    if foo {
        println("foo")
        return
    } else {
        return 2
    }
}

func main() {
    if input == "abc" {
        return ""
    } else {
        if len(value) == 3 {
            return []string{fmt.Sprintf("%s", value[2])}
        } else {
            return []string{fmt.Sprintf("%d abc", len(value)}}
        }
    }
}

Compliant Code Examples

func main() {
    if foo {
        println("foo")
    } else {
        return 2
    }
}
func main() {
    if ret, err := Action(str); err != nil {
        return "", err
    } else {
        return Encode(ret), nil
    }
}
func main() {
    if ret, err := Action(str); err != nil {
        return "", err
    } else {
        return Encode(Encode2(ret, ret)), nil
    }
}
func main() {
    if ret, err := Action(str); err == nil {
        return Encode(ret), nil
    } else {
        return err
    }

    if bar, err := getBarOrErr(); err != nil {
        return nil, err
    } else {
        foo.baz = Baz(bar)
    }

    if bar, err := getBarOrErr(); err == nil {
        return bar;
    } else {
        baz.Baz(err);
    }
}