Method with boolean return - if else vs. if

Question

Take for example the following two statements:

if (booleanVariable)
{
  doSomething();

  return true;
}
else
{
  return false;
}

and

if (booleanVariable)
{
  doSomething();

  return true;
}

return false;

Which one would be preferred?

They both return the same result in the end.

Any reason one would be better to use than the other?

See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2677843/is-there-any-appreciable-difference-between-if-and-if-else — BoltClock, Oct 21 '10 at 18:27
possible duplicate of [Why is "else" rarely used after "if x then return"?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3261849/why-is-else-rarely-used-after-if-x-then-return) — kennytm, Oct 21 '10 at 18:28

score 9 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 21 '10 at 18:28

9

Personally, I think the cleanest way would be

if (booleanVariable) {
    doSomething();
}
return booleanVariable;

Moving the redundant returns outside the if block highlights what you are doing differently if the variable is set.

answered Oct 21 '10 at 18:28

user470379

4,879
16
21

Or, whenever booleanVariable is set to true (probably defaulted as false), immediately call doSomething(). Either way, it's less code. – Stefan Kendall Oct 21 '10 at 18:30

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 27 '12 at 12:29

0

The if...else structure provides more readable code, but if you understand it fine and don't want to write as much, just do the second one :-)

answered Jun 27 '12 at 12:29

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 02 '15 at 07:32

I would have done it in different way. since, your first code solution might give an error, at least in c# since you will need to return a value outside of if-else scope.

i would have created a separate bool variable, and set it to true/false depending on what your if-test results

bool test;

if (booleanVariable)
{
  doSomething();

  test = true;
}

return test;

now if the if-test fail, the return bool will stay false as default.

Method with boolean return - if else vs. if

3 Answers3