Re: RE: Return or not to return, that is the question

Hi Jared, Wednesday, May 30, 2007, 4:10:45 PM, you wrote: [snip] > I think putting "return;" at the end of every function is probably a healthy > practice, but is it best practice? If it's poorly written and/or poorly > factored code, it doesn't make any difference if they have returns on > everything, it's still junky code. If you do put a return; at the end of all of your functions, I'm curious as to why? If a function doesn't actually return a value (which is highly possible) then it isn't /required/, but that doesn't stop me from doing it. I *do* put 'return;' at the end of all functions (my question to the list was - does anyone else?) That is all my original thread was ever really asking - I was just curious what other people thought about returning from functions that don't actually require a return value. So far the responses have been pretty varied, from the (somewhat blinkered) 'how can a function never return something?', to 'yes I always return' to 'no I just let it run out'. Based on the variety of replies it appears there is no 'standard' for this. Just as with code structure and studly-caps it's obviously a bit of a religious debate. I think perhaps it is a psychological thing actually, as if I don't consider the function 'finished' until it hits a return;. Almost like you're issuing an instruction to tell PHP "yes, as the programmer I am now happy for you to return to where-ever you were called from" - perhaps just a way of exerting our control :) > Should those checks be contained in the codeblock or class BEFORE returning? > I think so. I would agree (because it's how I do it ;), but this isn't an approach everyone takes. Cheers, Rich -- Zend Certified Engineer http://www.corephp.co.uk "Never trust a computer you can't throw out of a window"