Mastering Git – Part 2: Understanding Branching and Merging¶

Git’s true power lies in its ability to manage multiple lines of development through branching. If you’ve ever worked on a feature, bug fix, or experiment while keeping the main project stable, you’ve already used the concept of branching. Whether you realised it or not!

In this post, we'll cover:

✅ What branches are and why they matter
✅ Creating, switching, and deleting branches
✅ Merging changes and handling conflicts
✅ Best practices for working with branches

By the end, you’ll be confidently using Git branches to organise your work and collaborate effectively.

What is a Branch?¶

A branch in Git is like a separate timeline of your project. You can develop features, fix bugs, or experiment without affecting the main codebase until you’re ready.

🔹 The default branch in Git is called main (or master in older projects).
🔹 A new branch is a copy of the main branch at a given point.
🔹 You can switch between branches without affecting each other.
🔹 Once a branch is complete, it can be merged back into main.

Creating and Managing Branches¶

1. Viewing Existing Branches¶

To see all branches in your repository:

git branch

🔹 The branch you’re currently on is marked with *.

2. Creating a New Branch¶

To create a new branch named feature-branch:

git branch feature-branch

However, this only creates the branch—it does not switch to it.

3. Switching Between Branches¶

To move to your new branch:

git checkout feature-branch

or, in newer versions of Git (recommended):

git switch feature-branch

To create and switch to a branch in one command:

git checkout -b feature-branch

or

git switch -c feature-branch

4. Deleting a Branch¶

Once a branch is no longer needed, delete it with:

git branch -d feature-branch

🔹 If the branch hasn’t been merged yet, Git may warn you. To force delete:

git branch -D feature-branch

Merging Branches – Combining Changes¶

Once your branch is ready, you’ll want to merge it back into main.

1. Merging a Branch (Fast-Forward Merge)¶

If no changes have been made to main since the branch was created, Git will perform a fast-forward merge, moving the HEAD pointer forward.

git checkout main
git merge feature-branch

or using switch (recommended):

git switch main
git merge feature-branch

This applies all commits from feature-branch into main without creating a separate merge commit.

2. Merging with Conflicts (Three-Way Merge)¶

If main has changed since the branch was created, Git creates a merge commit to combine both sets of changes.

git switch main
git merge feature-branch

If changes overlap in the same file, Git will detect a conflict and show:

CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in file.txt

To resolve:\ 1️⃣ Open the conflicting file and manually edit the changes.\ 2️⃣ Once resolved, stage the file with:

git add file.txt

3️⃣ Complete the merge with:

git commit -m "Resolved merge conflict"

Merge vs Rebase – What’s the Difference?¶

🔹 Merge keeps history as-is and creates a new merge commit.
🔹 Rebase moves your changes on top of the latest main, keeping a linear history.

Example of rebasing:

git switch feature-branch
git rebase main

Then push with:

git push --force

🚨 Warning: Never rebase a shared branch in a team unless everyone understands rebasing!

More on this in Part 3: Merging vs Rebasing – When and Why?

Best Practices for Branching and Merging¶

✅ Use descriptive branch names\ Bad: new-branch\ Good: feature/user-authentication

✅ Keep branches small and focused\ Long-lived branches become hard to merge.

✅ Regularly pull changes from main\ Stay up to date to avoid big conflicts later.

✅ Delete merged branches\ Clean up old branches to keep your repo tidy.

✅ Use feature branches, not main\ Always develop in branches to keep main stable.

Summary of Key Commands¶

Action	Command
List branches	`git branch`
Create a new branch	`git branch branch-name`
Switch branches	`git switch branch-name`
Create and switch	`git switch -c branch-name`
Merge branch into `main`	`git switch main && git merge branch-name`
Delete branch (merged)	`git branch -d branch-name`
Delete branch (force)	`git branch -D branch-name`

What’s Next?¶

Now you know how to create branches, switch between them, and merge changes. But should you always merge? What about rebasing?

In the next post, we’ll explore rebase vs merge, when to use each, and how to keep a clean Git history.

👉 Stay tuned for Part 3: Rebasing vs Merging – When and Why? 🚀