Is it bad practice to use return inside a void method?

c# return void

Rodrigo · Aug 16, 2009 · Viewed 61k times · Source

Imagine the following code:

void DoThis()
{
    if (!isValid) return;

    DoThat();
}

void DoThat() {
    Console.WriteLine("DoThat()");
}

Is it OK to use a return inside a void method? Does it have any performance penalty? Or it would be better to write a code like this:

void DoThis()
{
    if (isValid)
    {
        DoThat();
    }
}

Answer

A return in a void method is not bad, is a common practice to invert if statements to reduce nesting.

And having less nesting on your methods improves code readability and maintainability.

Actually if you have a void method without any return statement, the compiler will always generate a ret instruction at the end of it.