Can we write if condition inside return
return if(ab.equals("Hello")){
return ab;
}
else
{
return "Hello";
};
Can this be done? I getting error and I'm not able to see any post or solution related to this.
In Java and in JavaScript, you cannot put any branching logic in the return; however, you can return conditionally. For your example, code, I would write it like:
return "Hello";
... since your code always has this effect (regardless of the branch). However, in other code (that can actually return different results), there are a number of different patterns that you can use:
// Pattern 1
return condition ? true_branch : false_branch
// Pattern 2:
if (condition) {
return true_branch;
}
return false_branch;
// Pattern 3:
if (condition) {
return true_branch;
} else {
return false_branch
}
Personally, I tend to stick with pattern #1 or pattern #2 (I only use pattern #3 if there is an "else if" case, and even then I have a preference to put a catch all return outside of any "if...else"). The reason for this is that pattern #3 tends to result in extra levels of nesting (which can make the code more difficult to read)... as a general rule, most functions should have only one or two layers of nesting, and using pattern #2 tends to reduce the amount of nesting that occurs.
It should also be noted that there are a number of cases that beginners tend to write but that should be simplified / reduced. For example, it is not uncommon to see this pattern (or its inverse):
if (cond) {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
Or:
return cond ? true : false;
In cases like the above, you should always simply return cond (or its inverse) directly, instead. That is, the above can be simplified to:
return cond;
In JavaScript, you may need to do a boolean conversion here, though, like:
return !!cond;