Good Programming Practice regarding conditional return statements [closed]

Question

I'd like to know which of the following is better programming practice:

// Below is the contents of a dummy method which is passed a boolean "condition" as a parameter.
int valueA = 3;
int valueB = 5
if (condition == true) {
return valueA
}
else {
return valueB
}

Alternatively, I could write the same code this way:

int valueA = 3;
int valueB = 5
if (condition == true) {
return valueA
}
return valueB

In both cases, valueB will only be returned if condition equals false, so having an "else" isn't required, however is it better practice to include it anyway?

Answer 1

I'd like to put the else there as well, for readability's sake. However, you could also write a shorthand if/else statement:

return condition ? valueA : valueB;

Again, it's your own preference how you write it.

Answer 2

Take the following Example, to see how the use of else helps you to understand the Code better

if (inputVar == thingOne) {
    doFirstThing();
} else if (inputVar == secondThing) {
    doSecondThing();
} else {
    doThirdThing();
}

I could write it like this aswell.

if (inputVar == thingOne) {
    doFirstThing();
    return;
}
if (inputVar == thingTwo) {
    doSecondThing();
    return;
}
doThingThree();
return;

Now ask yourself which code looks clearer and where you understand the most.

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It really comes down to which way most clearly shows what the code is doing (not necessarily which bit of code is shortest or has the least indentation).