How can I switch to another branch in git?

Question

Which one of these lines is correct?

git checkout \'another_branch\'

Or

git checkout origin \'another_branch\'
         


        

Answer 1

[git checkout "branch_name"]

is another way to say:

[git checkout -b branch_name origin/branch_name]

in case "branch_name" exists only remotely.

[git checkout -b branch_name origin/branch_name] is useful in case you have multiple remotes.

Regarding [git checkout origin 'another_branch'] I'm not sure this is possible, AFAK you can do this using "fetch" command -- [git fetch origin 'another_branch']

Answer 2

With Git 2.23 onwards, one can use git switch <branch name> to switch branches.

Answer 3

If you want the branch to track the remote branch, which is very important if you're going to commit changes to the branch and pull changes etc, you need to add a -t for the actual checkout like so: git checkout -t branchname