:= and = don't do what you probably think they do, the meaning is not the same as in Pascal. If you need to compare two variables, you use == if a == b {}

:= and = don't do what you probably think they do, the meaning is not the same as in Pascal. If you need to compare two variables, you use == if a == b {} = is the usual assignment, := declares and initializes a variable inferring the type. var a int a = 42 vs. a := 42 That means you'll see explicit types in variable declarations rarely.