Is having a return statement just to satisfy syntax bad practice?

Question

Consider the following code:

public Object getClone(Cloneable a) throws TotallyFooException {

    if (a == null) {
        throw new TotallyFooException();
    }
    else {
        try {
            return a.clone();
        } catch (CloneNotSupportedException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
    //cant be reached, in for syntax
    return null;
}

The return null; is necessary since an exception may be caught, however in such a case since we already checked if it was null (and lets assume we know the class we are calling supports cloning) so we know the try statement will never fail.

Is it bad practice to put in the extra return statement at the end just to satisfy the syntax and avoid compile errors (with a comment explaining it will not be reached), or is there a better way to code something like this so that the extra return statement is unnecessary?

Answer 1

A clearer way without an extra return statement is as follows. I wouldn't catch CloneNotSupportedException either, but let it go to the caller.

if (a != null) {
    try {
        return a.clone();
    } catch (CloneNotSupportedException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}
throw new TotallyFooException();

It's almost always possible to fiddle with the order to end up with a more straight-forward syntax than what you initially have.