FAQ: Git Branching - git checkout

This community-built FAQ covers the “git checkout” exercise from the lesson “Git Branching”.

Paths and Courses
This exercise can be found in the following Codecademy content:

Web Development

Learn Git

FAQs on the exercise git checkout

There are currently no frequently asked questions associated with this exercise – that’s where you come in! You can contribute to this section by offering your own questions, answers, or clarifications on this exercise. Ask or answer a question by clicking reply (reply) below.

If you’ve had an “aha” moment about the concepts, formatting, syntax, or anything else with this exercise, consider sharing those insights! Teaching others and answering their questions is one of the best ways to learn and stay sharp.

Join the Discussion. Help a fellow learner on their journey.

Ask or answer a question about this exercise by clicking reply (reply) below!

Agree with a comment or answer? Like (like) to up-vote the contribution!

Need broader help or resources? Head here.

Looking for motivation to keep learning? Join our wider discussions.

Learn more about how to use this guide.

Found a bug? Report it!

Have a question about your account or billing? Reach out to our customer support team!

None of the above? Find out where to ask other questions here!

in this lesson, you are told to:

1. Switch to the fencing branch from the master branch.

However, it throws an error that ‘fencing’ isn’t a known filepath to git, so you need to go back and create the branch again. Not a huge problem, but since creating the branch isn’t included in the steps, it makes you feel like you are doing something wrong.

Here is a screenshot of what happened:

1 Like

Okay, we learned that the checkout command can change your working directory in the last module.

Say I made some changes to my working directory while checked out on the fencing branch and then used checkout master. Would that mess up all the work I hadn’t yet committed to fencing?