Question

Suppose we want to return a value from a function based on a condition. We can do it in two ways:

function foo($bar) {
    if ($bar == 'value1') {
        return 'baz';
    }
    else if ($bar == 'value2') {
        return 'qux';
    }
}

function foo($bar) {
    $result = '';

    if ($bar == 'value1') {
        $result = 'baz';
    }
    else if ($bar == 'value2') {
        $result = 'qux';
    }

    return $result;
}

I personally prefer the second approach.
Which way do you thing is better (specially considering longer if/else structures)?
Thanks.

Answer 1

Personally I like the second way, because it’s more readable and you will not miss a return statement anywhere, especially if you have complicated if/else structures.