4 basic if-else statement patterns

• Basic syntax
• With init statement
• Nested if statements
• Ternary ? operator alternatives

Basic syntax

if x > max {
	x = max
}

if x <= y {
	min = x
} else {
	min = y
}

An if statement executes one of two branches according to a boolean expression.

• If the expression evaluates to true, the if branch is executed,
• otherwise, if present, the else branch is executed.

With init statement

if x := f(); x <= y {
	return x
}

The expression may be preceded by a simple statement, which executes before the expression is evaluated. The scope of x is limited to the if statement.

Nested if statements

if x := f(); x < y {
	return x
} else if x > z {
	return z
} else {
	return y
}

Complicated conditionals are often best expressed in Go with a switch statement. See 5 switch statement patterns for details.

Ternary ? operator alternatives

You can’t write a short one-line conditional in Go; there is no ternary conditional operator. Instead of

res = expr ? x : y

you write

if expr {
	res = x
} else {
	res = y
}

In some cases, you may want to create a dedicated function.

func Min(x, y int) int {
	if x <= y {
		return x
	}
	return y
}

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