Panic and recover

Context

• panic stops normal execution, runs deferred functions, then the program terminates.
• recover is a built‑in function that regains control after a panic. It must be called inside a deferred function.

Use only for unrecoverable errors (e.g., inconsistent state). For normal errors, prefer the error return pattern.

Example

Catch a panic and continue.

Code example

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    // Function that may panic
    defer func() {
        if r := recover(); r != nil {
            fmt.Println("Recovered from:", r)
        }
    }()

    fmt.Println("Before panic")
    panic("a serious error")
    fmt.Println("This will not be executed")
}

Output

Before panic
Recovered from: a serious error

Note

The program does not crash; it continues after recover. This can be useful for web servers (prevent a single request from crashing the whole server).

Useful links

• Go spec: Handling panics
• Go by Example: Panic and Recover