&gt; &quot;Go doesn&#x27;t have exceptions&quot; is mostly misleading.<p>It&#x27;s worded too strongly perhaps.  While `panic` behavior is similar to `java.lang.Exception`, it is not idiomatic to panic on problems like IOException&#x2F;SQLException. They are detected by return codes to be handled immediately, rather than a broad swath of code wrapped in `try`.<p>This in Java:<p><pre><code>    try
        code
        code
        code
    catch errA
        handle
    catch errB
        handle
    catch errC
        handle
</code></pre>
Would be this in Go:<p><pre><code>    code
       handle errA
    code
       handle errB
    code
       handle errC
</code></pre>
It&#x27;s fair to say &quot;Go doesn&#x27;t use exceptions&quot; since Go doesn&#x27;t use panics for common error handling.