PHP Coding styles return; in switch/case

Question

we\'re trying to implement new coding style guidelines for our team, the php codesniffer is printing an warning on switch case statements when no \"break\" is found like:

<

Answer 1

It's perfectly valid to leave out the break when you return from a switch.

But it's fairly common practise to add explicit breaks to every case as a defensive programming practise.

switch ($foo) {
    case 1:
        return 1;
        break;

    case 2:
        return 2;
        break;
}

The idea is that should you later change your code in case 1 and remove the return statement, you could forget to add a break.

That would accidentally cause program flow to fall through to case 2.

switch ($foo) {
    case 1:
        somethingDifferent();

    case 2:
        return 2;
        break;
}

Falling through case statements is slightly unusual and you should add a comment to your code when you do it to show that it's intentional.

switch ($foo) {
    case 1:
        somethingDifferentAndWeWantToDoCase2AsWell();
        // fallthrough

    case 2:
        return 2;
        break;
}

As with many defensive programming practises you've got to balance whether the code bloat - which potentially clutters your code and make it less readable - is worth it or not.