Question

Is there a difference between:

function someMethod( $someArg ) {
  // some code
  return;
}

and

function someMethod( $someArg ) {
  // some code
  // no return
}

Both have NULL as ‘return value’. Is there a difference? Something PHP internally? Performance? Speed?

edit
I ask, because in Zend framework (in this video) they use return; which seemed (seems) silly to me. However, you would think that the people behind Zend framework do know their PHP…

Answer 1

php code

<?php

function a() {
   echo 1;
   return;
}

function b() {
   echo 2;
}

generated bytecode

.FUNCTION a
        ECHO                     1
        RETURN                   NULL
        RETURN                   NULL
        HANDLE_EXCEPTION         
.END FUNCTION

.FUNCTION b
        ECHO                     2
        RETURN                   NULL
        HANDLE_EXCEPTION         
.END FUNCTION

so the explicit return statement generates one extra RETURN instruction. Otherwise there’s no difference.