What Is Short-Circuit Evaluation in Go

Stdlib

2026-04-17T12:05:42+00:00

Short-circuit evaluation in Go stops evaluating logical expressions as soon as the result is determined by the first operand.

Short-circuit evaluation in Go is the behavior where the second operand of a logical operator (&& or ||) is not evaluated if the first operand already determines the result. This prevents unnecessary computation and avoids executing code that might cause a panic if the first condition fails.

if x != nil && x.Value > 10 {
    // x.Value is only accessed if x is not nil
}

if x == nil || x.Value == 0 {
    // x.Value is only accessed if x is not nil
}