Question

I was wondering which is better style to return a parameter from a method:

1. 

    if (someBooleanIsTrue)
    {
        someTypeList = getTypeInstance(param1, param2);
    }

    else if (anotherBooleanIsTrue)
    {
        someTypeList = getTypeInstanceSecondMethod(param1, param2);
    }
    return someTypeList;

2.

List<SomeType> someTypeList = null;
...
if (someBooleanIsTrue)
{
   return getTypeInstance(param1, param2);
}

else if (anotherBooleanIsTrue)
{
   return getTypeInstanceSecondMethod(param1, param2);
}
return new ArrayList<SomeType>();

Which option do you like better and why? Please have arguments 🙂

Cheers

Answer 1

It’s pretty common for people to tell you that any given method should only return in one place. I find that if methods are kept short and simple then multiple returns aren’t as big of a readability issue. The book clean code has a pretty good discussion on the subject of readable code, including this particular topic.