Question

Let’s say for an instance I have this function:

function isValid($premise){
    if($premise == 'foo')
    {
        return true;
    }

    return false;
}

As you can see the else statement was omitted, else it was immediately followed by the return statement. Why do some people omit them? Is it a bad programming practice?

Answer 1

The same code will be generated with or without the missing else. It’s a matter of style and preference.

Personally I would tend to omit the else only when checking for certain conditions at the start of a long function.

I do not consider it bad practice. There are situations where it makes for clearer code.