[luriel]

In Go unused variables are an error, so you are forced to either handle errors or explicitly ignore them (by assigning them to _).

[Djehngo]

Sort of, you can actually get away with invoking a function and not assigning its result at all

I think assigning the error to _ is only necassary when you have multiple return values(one of which is the error) and you are interested in at least one of them.

e.g.

    returnsTwoValues()

is legal

    x := returnsTwoValues()

is not

maps are also interesting because

    value := someMap[key]

is valid and

    value, keyIsPresent := someMap[key]

is also valid.