Re: Multiple return statements in a function.

"tedd" <tedd.sperling@gmail.com> wrote in message news:p06240805c6161613a715@[192.168.1.101]... > At 8:12 AM -0400 4/23/09, Peter van der Does wrote: >>I tend to put my return value in a variable and at the end of the >>function I have 1 return statement. >>I have seen others doing returns in the middle of the function. >> >>-snip- >> >>What is your take? And is there any benefit to either method? >> >>Peter van der Does > > Peter: > > It's called "Structured programming" -- one way in and one way out of a > function. > > There are, of course, exceptions where it might help others reviewing your > code to see what's going on, such as returning a null value if the > argument(s) provided are not suitable. But normally the rule is, do not > provide an exit from a function in more than one place. There is no such "rule", it is a matter of personal preference. As a previous poster has already said, if you want to leave a function early and ignore all subsequent processing it is easier to understand if you return immediately rather than have a mechanism to jump over the remaining code to a single return point. In the good old days we used to use the GOTO in COBOL to jump to the exit point, but then people found a way to abuse GOTO in very imaginatve ways. > The "benefit" is easier to read code. I think that an immediate return is easier to read, but what do I know - I've only been programming for 30 years. -- Tony Marston http://www.tonymarston.net http://www.radicore.org > Cheers, > > tedd > > -- > ------- > http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com