Switch on another branch (create if not exists), without checking if already exists?

Question

git checkout -b foo switches on foo branch (even if it doesn't exist, it is created), but if the foo branch already exists it throws an error like this:

fatal: A branch named 'foo' already exists. 

What's the command that does the following check?

• if the branch already exists, just switch on it (git checkout foo)
• if the branch doesn't exist, create it and switch on it (git checkout -b foo)

Answer 1

Update Q3 2019 (Git 2.23): there now actually is a git switch command!

git switch -c aBranch  

You would need a similar alias though:

switchoc = "!f() { git switch $1 2>/dev/null || git switch -c $1; }; f" 

Note the name of the alias: switchoc (for "switch or create").
As jar pointed out in the comments:

Anyone trying this in 2021, note that you cannot shadow existing git commands with aliases.
Since git switch is a git command, this alias (named "switch") won't work. You must create your unique name for the alias, like "switchit" or something.

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bgusach's alias mentioned below in the comment is safer (based on Jiří Pavelka 's answer):

switch = "!f() { git checkout $1 2>/dev/null || git checkout -b $1; }; f"  git switch abranch 

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Original answer (2014) You can try:

git checkout -B foo 

From git checkout man page:

If -B is given, <new_branch> is created if it doesn’t exist; otherwise, it is reset. This is the transactional equivalent of

$ git branch -f <branch> [<start point>] $ git checkout <branch> 

As mentioned below, use it with caution as it does reset the branch, which is not always desirable.
If you did reset the branch by mistake with this command, you can easily revert to its previous state with:

git reset HEAD@{1} 

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