return (a) vs. return a

Question

I have seen both in the C and C++ code I have been looking at.

What is the difference?

Answer 1

return is not a function.

It is more a point of style. I personally do not use parentheses in a return statement unless it is showing order of operations.

examples

return a;
return (a || b);
return (a && (b || c));
return (a ? b : c);