Writing Efficient Go Code with Short-Circuit Evaluation
How the short-circuit evaluation can improve the performance and stability of your code
Many languages such as Go implement the short circuit evaluation to optimize the processing of logical expressions.
When working with multiple conditions, the order of evaluation for each term plays a critical role in both stability and performance.
In this article, we will explore short-circuit evaluation and look at why it can be important and affect the efficiency of your application.
What is short-circuit evaluation?
Go, like many C-like languages, follows the principle of short-circuit evaluation, also known as lazy evaluation, when checking multiple conditions linked by logic operators.
If you have multiple conditions in an AND relationship, they are evaluated from left to right, stopping after the first false condition.
The same logic applies to OR conditions, but for duality, the evaluation stops after the first true condition.
In both cases, once the evaluation stops, the other conditions are not executed, even if they contain function calls or other operations that could change your data.
