Branches and Workflow

Level: Intermediate

ℹ️ What You'll Learn

• Create branches
• Switch between branches
• Merge branches
• Resolve conflicts
• Branching strategies

Create Branch

git branch feature/student-management
git checkout feature/student-management

# Or shorthand:
git checkout -b feature/student-management

List branches:

git branch
# main
# * feature/student-management

Branching Strategy

SMS project structure:

main (production)
├── feature/student-management
│   ├── Add Student model
│   ├── Add StudentService
│   └── Add API controller
├── feature/fee-module
│   ├── Add Fee model
│   └── Add FeeCalculator
└── develop (integration)
    ├── All features merge here
    └── Test before main

Common strategies:

• Git Flow: main, develop, feature/, release/, hotfix/*
• GitHub Flow: main, feature/*, PR required
• Trunk-based: main, very short-lived feature branches

Switch Branch

git checkout main      # Switch to main
git checkout feature/fee-module  # Switch to fee feature

Working directory updates automatically.

Merge Branch

Feature complete. Merge to main:

git checkout main
git merge feature/student-management

Merge commits appear in history:

* Merge branch 'feature/student-management' into main
|\
| * Add StudentService
| * Add Student model
|/
* Initial commit

Resolve Conflicts

Two branches modify same file:

# merge conflict
git merge feature/fee-module
# Auto-merge failed
# Fix conflicts and commit

File shows conflict markers:

public decimal CalculateFees(int id)
{
<<<<<<< HEAD
    return ClassRate - Discount;  // main version
=======
    return ClassRate - Discount - Scholarship;  // feature version
>>>>>>> feature/fee-module
}

Edit to choose correct version, then:

git add StudentFees.cs
git commit -m "Resolve merge conflict in fee calculation"

Rebase (Alternative to Merge)

Keep history linear:

git checkout feature/exam-module
git rebase main

# Apply exam-module commits on top of main

Result: Single line history instead of merge commit.

SMS Workflow Example

# 1. Create feature branch
git checkout -b feature/exam-management

# 2. Work on exam feature
# Add Exam model
# Add ExamService
# Add ExamController
# Write tests

# 3. Commit changes
git add .
git commit -m "Add exam management system"

# 4. Push to server
git push origin feature/exam-management

# 5. Create Pull Request (on GitHub)
# Team review

# 6. Merge to main
git checkout main
git pull
git merge feature/exam-management

# 7. Delete feature branch
git branch -d feature/exam-management

Key Takeaways

• Branch = isolated development
• Merge = combine branches
• Conflicts = resolve manually
• Strategy = organize workflow

💡 Branch Naming

Use prefixes: feature/, bugfix/, hotfix/, release/ Example: feature/student-registration, bugfix/fee-calculation-error

🤖Use AI to Learn Faster

Use ChatGPT, Claude, or Copilot to go deeper on Git Branches. Try these prompts:

• "When should I create a new branch?"
• "How do I resolve merge conflicts?"
• "What's the difference between merge and rebase?"
• "Quiz me on branching"

💡 Tip: After reading this article, paste your own code into AI and ask "What could go wrong here and why?" — fastest way to find edge cases and deepen understanding.