diff --git a/lgensemble_io.go b/lgensemble_io.go
index 049e6ff..6721278 100644
--- a/lgensemble_io.go
+++ b/lgensemble_io.go
@@ -221,11 +221,11 @@ func LGEnsembleFromReader(reader *bufio.Reader) (*LGEnsemble, error) {
 	if err := mapValueCompare(params, "num_tree_per_iteration", "1"); err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
-	if maxFeatureIdx, err := mapValueToInt(params, "max_feature_idx"); err != nil {
+	maxFeatureIdx, err := mapValueToInt(params, "max_feature_idx")
+	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
-	} else {
-		e.MaxFeatureIdx = uint32(maxFeatureIdx)
 	}
+	e.MaxFeatureIdx = uint32(maxFeatureIdx)
 
 	treeSizesStr, isFound := params["tree_sizes"]
 	if !isFound {
diff --git a/mat_io.go b/mat_io.go
index 262461a..9dc901c 100644
--- a/mat_io.go
+++ b/mat_io.go
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ func DenseMatFromLibsvm(reader *bufio.Reader, limit uint32, skipFirstColumn bool
 			return mat, fmt.Errorf("too few columns")
 		}
 
-		column := uint32(0)
+		var column uint32
 		for col := startIndex; col < uint32(len(tokens)); col++ {
 			if len(tokens[col]) == 0 {
 				break
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ func CSRMatFromLibsvm(reader *bufio.Reader, limit uint32, skipFirstColumn bool)
 		}
 
 		mat.RowHeaders = append(mat.RowHeaders, uint32(len(mat.Values)))
-		column := uint32(0)
+		var column uint32
 		for col := startIndex; col < uint32(len(tokens)); col++ {
 			if len(tokens[col]) == 0 {
 				break
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ func DenseMatFromCsv(reader *bufio.Reader,
 		}
 		tokens := strings.Split(line, delimiter)
 
-		column := uint32(0)
+		var column uint32
 		for col := startIndex; col < uint32(len(tokens)); col++ {
 			var value float64
 			if len(tokens[col]) == 0 {