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In this video, you will learn how to create and

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merge a branch using the GitHub web interface.

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A branch is a snapshot of your repository to which you can make changes.

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It is a copy of the master branch and can be used to develop and test changes to the

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workflow before merging it back to the master branch. In Git and GitHub, there is a main

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branch.

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The main branch which is called Master, is the one with deployable code

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and the official working version of your project.

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It is meant to be stable and it is always
advisable never to push any code that is not

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tested to master.

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Many times, we want to make changes to the code and workflow in the master branch.

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That is when we create a copy of the Master branch.

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Let’s call it Child Branch.

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We will then create a copy of the workflow to the child branch in the child branch, changes

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and experiments are done.

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We will build and make edits, test the changes and when we are satisfied with the changes

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we will merge it back to the master branch where we prepare the model for deployment.

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We can see that all of this is done outside of the main branch and until we merge, changes

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will not be made to the workflow before we branched.

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To ensure that changes done by one member, does not impede or affect the flow of work

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of other members, multiple branches can be created and merged appropriately to master

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after the workflow is properly tested and
approved.

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To create branches in GitHub, let’s look
at this repository.

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There is currently one branch in the repository.

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I want to make some changes, but I don’t want to alter the master in case something

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goes wrong.

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We will create a branch.

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To do that, we will click the drop-down arrow and create a new branch.

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Let's name it - child branch and then we will click enter.

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The repository now has two branches, the Master and the Child branch.

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You can check this by selecting Child branch in the Branch selector drop-down list.

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Whatever was in the Master branch was copied to the child branch.

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But we can add files in the child branch without adding any files to the master branch.

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To add a file, make sure Child branch is selected in the branch selector drop-down list.

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Click on create new file. In the space provided, name the file - we will name it

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testchild.py and then we will add a few lines of code.

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We will print the statement – Inside child branch.

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At the bottom of the screen, we will see a section called Commit new file.

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Commit messages are very important as it helps to keep track of the changes that were made.

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It is important to add a descriptive commit message so that other team

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members can understand it.

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Here we will add a commit message,

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Create testchild.py, then we will commit the new file.

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The file gets added to only the child branch.

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We can check this by going to the master branch by clicking ‘master’ from the Branch selector

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menu and here we can see that the new file is not added to the master branch.

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After we have created the new file, tested and made sure that is up to standards.

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We then want to merge the changes in the child branch to reflect in the master branch.

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To merge the changes, we will first have to create a pull request, also known as a PR.

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A pull request in simple terms is a way to notify other team members of your changes

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and edits and ask them for review so they can be pulled or merged into the master branch.

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Pull requests are the heart of collaboration on GitHub.

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When you open a pull request, you’re proposing your changes and requesting that someone review

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and pull in your contribution and merge them into the target branch.

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Pull requests show the differences of the content from both branches.

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To open a pull request and see the differences between the branches, click on the Compare

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and pull request button.

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If you scroll down to the bottom of the screen, you will see something like this that shows

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you the difference between both branches.

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As you can see on the screen it shows that one file has changed and the file has two

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additions, which are the two lines we added to the file and 0 deletions.

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We will now create the pull request.

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Add the title and an optional comment for the pull request.

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Click Create Pull request to create the pull request.

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You can assign team members to review and approve pull requests.

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On the next page you will see this image. If you are okay with the changes, click on Merge

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pull request and click confirm. You will get a confirmation that the pull request has been

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successfully merged.

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You can now delete the branch if you no longer need to make any edits or add new information.

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Now, the child branch has completely merged with the Master branch.

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You can check the Master branch and we can now see it contains the

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testchild.py file.

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You should now be familiar with how to create and merge branches using the web interface.