Switch Branch

The switch operation in Git will make it easier. Designed to simplify the process for developers, it's safer and more straightforward than the older git checkout command. Introduced as a beta in Git version 2.23, git switch rapidly became one of the favorite tools for confident moves between branches.

How do you use the git switch to make the most of it?

Switching to a Branch Using the "git switch" Command

Where the git switch command is intended to make working with branches easier and more straightforward, where git checkout can switch between branches, along with a load of other things, this command focuses entirely on the task of having GIT manage the local branch at HEAD. As such, it's a lot more intuitive and less likely to mess things up. You can use git switch to quickly switch over to an existing branch without accidentally changing files and without even creating an extra branch.

The basic syntax of the git switch command is super simple:

git switch <branch-name>

In the above command, branch-name refers to the name of the branch you want to check out. If the branch already exists, then it would be checked out by Git; thus, your working directory gets updated. That happens to sync with the content in the repository.

You also can create a new branch and switch to that new branch in one step with git switch by adding the -c option.

git switch -c <new-branch-name>

Now, let's break down the differences between git switch and git checkout to understand where each has its own different purposes:

Git Switch Vs. Checkout

While it's true that both can be used to switch between branches, they differ totally in their purpose, and one is miles inferior compared to the other.

Branch Switching

Branch Creation

File Checkout

Detached HEAD State

When to Use Each Command

Use Git checkout if you need the flexibility to check out particular files or commits, or for example, where some of your files in the context you are working in need to be restored into an earlier state.

If you want to clearly and concisely deal with your branches, then make use of the git switch. Even more, this will be useful for those developers who mostly work with branches and want to save themselves from some perils of a very powerful git checkout command parametrize.

Anyway, if you're interested in learning more about 'git checkout' command, you can list all git checkout commands using the following command.

git checkout --help

Let us consider some practical examples using both of these commands.

Examples of "git switch"

Now, let me prove it with examples so that you can see the concrete use of both commands. The basic syntax of this command for 'git switch' is:

git switch [BRANCH-NAME]

  In this example, I will switch to another branch using a git switch branch command; here is the example:

git switch design

The changes done to the CLI will be reflected as follows.

However, if I switch to a branch that doesn't exist, it returns an error here:.

Now, I try to switch to a non-existing one in my repository; let's see what will happen on the following screen.

If you want this command to change the branch to another non-existing one. You will have to use the '-c' flag with the command as shown below:

git switch -c [BRANCH-NAME]

-c stands for '–create'. By the use of this flag, it is possible to enable adding a new branch and switching into it with one step.

The other common way of selecting an existing branch in the stack is checking it out with 'git checkout'. You must do this by passing the command as a string, followed by the name of the branch:

git checkout [BRANCH-NAME]

Let’s see an example.

git checkout developer

Similarly, below is the display of errors caused by using an invalid name of a branch in the repository.

But then there is a way to create the branch if it doesn't exist yet and switch the HEAD - the current cursor into the new branch at once. Example git checkout -b Herein is an example.

git checkout -b team

The '-b' flag is for 'branch', and if one doesn't exist in the repository you are in, it will make a new branch.

Well, branches in Git, by convention, represent a server that holds with commits and references so you can then travel backward easily. But what about if you want to specify when a new branch is created at other commits? That is where the git checkout command comes into play. Let's dive into it in the next section.

Switching to Another Branch at a Specific Point using Checkout

That's quite an easy task with the help of the git checkout command, which simply needs some additional arguments taken into the command line interface.

Here is the syntax for creating a new branch at a point:

git checkout -B [BRANCH-NAME] [COMMIT-POINT]

However, you would like to know the number of a commit you want to start a new branch from, for further processing:.

You can do that using the following command in git:

git log --oneline

Running this will make all the references and commits available as shown in the image below.

Next, you'll want to specify that cue point where it actually needs to shift to another branch. For example, I will take the '564771c' as the starting point.

git checkout -B flatcoding 564771c

Running this command will create a new branch starting from the specified point, “564771c”.

Let’s summarize it.

Wrapping Up

Git 2.23 introduces the "git switch" command to move immediately between branches in a Git workflow, giving special attention to branch operations instead of using the more general-purpose git checkout. Since this gives developers simple, safe usage.

Having done a comparison between git switch and checkout, let's have a fair idea now of when to use either of them! Both of those commands are helpful in switching between branches. Git switch would vary in that it has a more explicit flow; most Git users would appreciate its modern syntax.

That is, most users will prefer modern use syntax like git switch, for instance. However, the older workflows will remain git checkout alive for quite some time; this is because it is a richer command in respect of using corporeal forms of branching.

Practical examples are also provided showing the use of each of the commands. Brevity and workflows — In the future, branch switching is a very good example of one core Git practices that has affected how other software deals with branches.

This makes the git switch popular since now it allows for workflows where its state can remain clean without the normal rebasing of changes. The git checkout --help is where more features of git checkout are described to those who want to make use of them. Thesefspéculic use cases, as demonstrated by examples, are what anchor the strength of each of these commands. A comparison of --help text of git switch to git checkout will instance both support a -b flag to create and check out new branches in one step. Furthermore, looking into how to switch to another branch without losing your place is a testament to just how flexible git checkout can be in such scenarios.