Use panic only for unrecoverable errors where the program cannot safely continue execution.
Use panic only for unrecoverable errors where continuing execution is impossible or unsafe, such as invalid program state or critical initialization failures. For recoverable errors, return an error instead to allow the caller to handle the situation gracefully.
func divide(a, b int) int {
if b == 0 {
panic("division by zero is not allowed")
}
return a / b
}
Use panic when your program hits a wall it cannot climb over, like a missing critical file or a logic error that makes further steps impossible. It is like a car's emergency brake that stops everything immediately because driving on is dangerous. For normal hiccups like a missing user input, handle them gracefully instead of stopping the whole program.