Proposal: gofmt should format single-statement error return on 1 line instead of current 3 lines.

[urban-wombat]

This is a proposal, not an fault report. It's about if statements of the form:

if err != nil {
return err // with possible addition arguments based on the return list
}

A simple rule change in gofmt would solve the visual issue (too many lines: 3) without compromising Go's error philosophy. Just change gofmt to format single-line if statements that return an error value, as a single line, e.g.: if err != nil { return err }

err := myFunction()
if err != nil { return err }

What version of Go are you using (go version)?

$ go version 1.12.7 windows/amd64

Does this issue reproduce with the latest release?

gofmt works correctly for me. My issue is a proposed change to help with err != nil issue.

What operating system and processor architecture are you using (go env)?

go env Output

$ go env

set GOARCH=amd64
set GOBIN=f:\Dropbox\golang/bin
set GOCACHE=C:\Users\Malcolm\AppData\Local\go-build
set GOEXE=.exe
set GOFLAGS=
set GOHOSTARCH=amd64
set GOHOSTOS=windows
set GOOS=windows
set GOPATH=f:\Dropbox\golang
set GOPROXY=
set GORACE=
set GOROOT=c:\go
set GOTMPDIR=
set GOTOOLDIR=c:\go\pkg\tool\windows_amd64
set GCCGO=gccgo
set CC=gcc
set CXX=g++
set CGO_ENABLED=1
set GOMOD=
set CGO_CFLAGS=-g -O2
set CGO_CPPFLAGS=
set CGO_CXXFLAGS=-g -O2
set CGO_FFLAGS=-g -O2
set CGO_LDFLAGS=-g -O2
set PKG_CONFIG=pkg-config
set GOGCCFLAGS=-m64 -mthreads -fmessage-length=0 -fdebug-prefix-map=G:\cygwin64\tmp\go-build401339902=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switche

What did you do?

What did you expect to see?

gofmt works correctly for me. My issue is a proposed change to help with err != nil issue.

What did you see instead?

gofmt works correctly for me. My issue is a proposed change to help with err != nil issue.

[urandom]

I don't think it will do anything visually. IMHO it might actually make readability worse, since now there will be this dense piece of code that will stick out like a sore thumb.

[rsc]

As Rob said in his proverbs talk, "Gofmt's style is no one's favorite, yet gofmt is everyone's favorite." It is far more important to have one format than to debate minor points. There is not a compelling reason to change this one. (The original rationale was to keep conditional code clearly separated from the surrounding code; that still seems like it applies, but the bigger point is that gofmt format is basically done.)

See https://go-proverbs.github.io/ and the links to video clips there.

[urban-wombat]

Proposal #33113 could do with before and after code samples to make it clear what is meant by reducing boilerplate err != nil code from 3 lines to 1 line.

The formatting changes have been made to func unhappyFunc() (int, string, error) in the following two before and after samples on Go Playground:

1. With existing gofmt rules func unhappyFunc() has 35 lines of code vs 23 lines for the proposed gofmt formatting.

2. With the proposed gofmt rules func unhappyFunc() has 23 lines of code vs 35 lines of code.

• There are no syntax changes required for the Go compiler.
• Nothing is hidden from the programmer.
• Boilerplate error handling no longer outnumbers by 3 to 1 the line of code it checks.