I don't think so. The value is set in the assignment in the if statement even for the success path. With and without defer you nowadays get only a warning due

I don't think so. The value is set in the assignment in the if statement even for the success path. With and without defer you nowadays get only a warning due to the misleading indentation: https://godbolt.org/z/3G4jzrTTr https://godbolt.org/z/3G4jzrTTr (updated)