You should be checking errors immediately after they are returned. Once you've checked it, re-use the variable: x, err := f(a) if err != nil { // probably

You should be checking errors immediately after they are returned. Once you've checked it, re-use the variable: x, err := f(a) if err != nil { // probably time to return from the func } y, err := g(x) // we have at least 1 new var, so := still works if err != nil { // handle } x, err = h(y) // since we're re-using both x and err, just use = I've never appended a number to "err".