Go: Blank Lines and Error Handling Syntax
When writing Go, I generally don’t include a lot of blank lines. Here’s an example (ignore the lack of error wrapping/annotation):
func zipmod(dir, modpath, version string) ([]byte, error) {
var buf bytes.Buffer
zw := zip.NewWriter(&buf)
err := filepath.WalkDir(dir, func(path string, d fs.DirEntry, err error) error {
if err != nil {
return err
}
if d.IsDir() {
return nil
}
relpath, err := filepath.Rel(dir, path)
if err != nil {
return err
}
// Create zip entry with module@version prefix
dst, err := zw.Create(modpath + "@" + version + "/" + filepath.ToSlash(relpath))
if err != nil {
return err
}
src, err := os.Open(path)
if err != nil {
return err
}
defer src.Close()
if _, err := io.Copy(dst, src); err != nil {
return err
}
return src.Close()
})
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
if err := zw.Close(); err != nil {
return nil, err
}
return buf.Bytes(), nil
}
The if err != nil blocks already serve the purpose of visually splitting up the operations, so adding additional whitespace feels redundant. Now let’s imagine Go had a try keyword for error checking.
func zipmod(dir, modpath, version string) ([]byte, error) {
var buf bytes.Buffer
zw := zip.NewWriter(&buf)
try filepath.WalkDir(dir, func(path string, d fs.DirEntry, err error) error {
if err != nil {
return err
}
if d.IsDir() {
return nil
}
// Create zip entry with module@version prefix
relpath := try filepath.Rel(dir, path)
dst := try zw.Create(modpath + "@" + version + "/" + filepath.ToSlash(relpath))
src := try os.Open(path)
defer src.Close()
try io.Copy(dst, src)
try src.Close()
return nil
})
try zw.Close()
return buf.Bytes(), nil
}
All of a sudden, I get the urge to start breaking things up using blank lines. But if we begin adding blank lines, that starts to undo the LOC savings we get from the try.
Note: This isn’t meant to be an argument for or against try or similar langauge features.