Local variables before return statements, does it matter?

Question

Sorry if this is a newbie question but I couldn\'t find an answer for this. Is it better to do this:

int result = number/number2;
return result;

Answer 1

Choose the version that you think is more readable.

There are legitimate cases where the named variable improves readability. For example

public String encrypt(String plainString)
{
    byte[] plainBytes      = plainString.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
    byte[] hashPlainBytes  = enhash( plainBytes, 4 );
    byte[] encryptedBytes  = doAes128(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE , hashPlainBytes );
    String encryptedBase64 = Base64.getEncoder().withoutPadding().encodeToString(encryptedBytes);
    return encryptedBase64;
}

public String decrypt(String encryptedBase64)
{
    byte[] encryptedBytes = Base64.getDecoder().decode(encryptedBase64);
    byte[] hashPlainBytes = doAes128(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE , encryptedBytes );
    byte[] plainBytes     = dehash( hashPlainBytes, 4 );
    String plainString = new String(plainBytes, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
    return plainString;
}

There are also cases where we need a variable in a different type from the return type. This affects type conversion and inference, making a significant semantic difference.

Foo foo()            vs.        Foo foo()
{                               {
                                    Bar bar = expr;
    return expr;                    return bar;
}                               }