Why do some people return after they throw Exceptions?

Question

I see in some of the code on Github

if($something_funky_happens){   throw new \LogicException(...);   return; } 

Is this required, or it is not important to return? because I know that after you throw exceptions the script stops, so further code does not run

Answer 1

unreachable code

I tend to denote it an error in their code. The statement is not reachable. Every static code anaylsis tool will complain about this unreachable statement. Even when it has no harm in this case you will get a load of warnings when checking your code. If you turn these warning type off you will perhaps miss other logic errors within your code. It's a real bad smell and it needs to be fixed.

Answer 2

Because they made a mistake, or it's their personal preference. It's impossible to get to the return in that code, but there's no real harm in including it.

From the docs ^{(emphasis mine)}:

When an exception is thrown, code following the statement will not be executed, and PHP will attempt to find the first matching catch block.