Question

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Why should a function have only one exit-point?

As a CS student I have had it beaten into my head that there should only be one exit point in a function, at the end.

eg. This:

function foo()
{

    //do stuff here

    if($bar)
    {
         $out = FALSE;
    }
    else
    {
         $out = TRUE;
    }
    return $out;
}

Not:

function foo()
{

    //do stuff here

    if($bar)
    {
         return FALSE;
    }
    return TRUE;
}

However I have seen this second type of exiting used quite often in other peoples code in php, and even in core code for some frameworks (like Kohana which I have been using lately).
Is this method of exiting a function considered okay in php standards?

Edit: I can see why I have been told not to do it as it can be easier to track some problems in a function with one exit point, other times I can see why it should be allowed as other problems are better solved or tracked in functions with multiple exit points.

Edit 2: Added “do stuff here” comments to the code example to make people happy

Answer 1

I’ve always used the latter route, since you would have to declare $out and have one more variable in existence. But in retrospect, it’s just a boolean — it’s not doing any harm. The first route could look cleaner, depending on the context of your code.

It all comes down to consistency. As long as you have a system, determining when it is time to use route 1 or route 2, you’re doing great.