Metadata

ID: go-best-practices/comparison-true

Language: Go

Severity: Notice

Category: Best Practices

Description

In Go, it is recommended to use the if foo syntax, where foo is a boolean expression, rather than comparing it explicitly to true using if foo == true.

Here are the reasons why if foo is preferred:

1. Simplicity and Readability: Using if foo reduces unnecessary verbosity and improves code readability. It directly expresses the condition based on the truthiness of foo, making it easier to understand the intent of the condition without the need for an explicit comparison.
2. Idiomatic Expression: In Go, boolean expressions like foo already evaluate to true or false, so comparing them explicitly to true is redundant and unnecessary.
3. Avoiding Errors: Using if foo helps prevent common mistakes, such as accidentally using = (assignment operator) instead of == (equality operator) in the comparison, which would lead to a logical error.

For example, consider the following code snippets:

1
2
3
if foo {
    // Code block
}

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2
3
if foo == true {
    // Code block
}

Both snippets achieve the same result if foo evaluates to true. However, the first snippet using if foo is preferred for its simplicity, clarity, and adherence to Go’s idiomatic style.

By using if foo instead of if foo == true, you can write cleaner and more readable code that takes advantage of the natural boolean evaluation in Go.

Non-Compliant Code Examples

func main() {
    if foo == true {
        
    }
}

Compliant Code Examples

func main() {
    if foo {
        
    }
}