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

I think you should't worry about performance here. In this case readability and maintainability are way more important.

Sticking to one exit point for a routine is a good practice.

However, sometimes multiple returns just make the code a lot clearer, especially when you have a number of tests near the beginning of the code (ie checking if all of the input parameters are in the correct format) for which an 'if-true' should lead to a return.

ie:

if (date not set) return false;
age = calculateAgeBasedOnDate();
if (age higher than 100) return false;
...lots of code...
return result;