git checkout vs git switch — Which Should You Use?

git switch was introduced to split git checkout's overloaded behavior — switching branches — into its own, less error-prone command.

Key points

• git checkout historically handled both switching branches and restoring files, which made it easy to misuse
• git switch branch-name only switches branches; git restore file only restores files — each does one thing
• git checkout still works and is extremely common in existing tutorials and scripts, so both are worth knowing

Example

git switch feature-branch