Metadata

ID: go-best-practices/errors-new-errorf

Language: Go

Severity: Info

Category: Best Practices

Description

You should use fmt.Errorf("something %w", foo) instead of errors.New(fmt.Sprintf("something %s", foo)).

Here are a few reasons why:

1. Error wrapping: By using fmt.Errorf with the %w format specifier instead of %s, your new error object wraps the original error. This makes it possible to access the original error object using errors.Is and errors.As.
2. Simplicity: The fmt.Errorf function simplifies the error message creation by combining the formatting and error wrapping in one function call. In contrast, using errors.New(fmt.Sprintf("something %s", foo)) requires an extra step of formatting the string separately before creating the error.
3. Consistency: By consistently using fmt.Errorf, developers maintain a uniform approach to error handling and can easily recognize and handle errors throughout the codebase. Using a single idiomatic method rather than mixing different styles ensures consistency and improves code readability and maintainability.

Non-Compliant Code Examples

func myFunc() error {
	foo := "foo"
	return errors.New(fmt.Sprintf("error: %s", foo))
}

Compliant Code Examples

func myFunc() error {
	foo := "foo"
	return fmt.Errorf("error: %w", foo)
}

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