else or return?

Question

Which one out of following two is best wrt to performance and standard practice. How does .NET internally handles these two code snippets?

Code1

If(r         


        

Answer 1

Both styles are commonplace, and religious wars have been fought over them. :-)

I normally do this:

• If the test is expressing method contract semantics, e.g. checking input parameters for validity, then choose option 2.
• Otherwise, choose option 1.

However, arguably a more important rule is "which is more readable and/or maintainable for the next developer who looks at the code?".

The performance difference is negligible, as others have said.