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Philip G
14,600 PointsJava Best Practises - Create variable for return statement?
Assume there is no further (manipulating) action taken on the variable and it is just used for holding the return data. Is it better to create a variable or directly return the data here?
Example:
/* Is this considered ok? */
public String getFormattedTime(){
SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("h:mm a");
formatter.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone(getTimeZone()));
Date dateTime = new Date(getTime() * 1000);
String timeString = formatter.format(dateTime);
return timeString; // <---
}
/* Or should I use that? */
public String getFormattedTime(){
SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("h:mm a");
formatter.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone(getTimeZone()));
Date dateTime = new Date(getTime() * 1000);
return formatter.format(dateTime); // <---
}
Philip G
14,600 PointsHi Scott, thanks for your answer! I also think that the second one is better and saves resources. Let's see what others have to say :)
2 Answers
Steve Hunter
57,712 PointsHi Philip,
Just return it, I think. One less variable to worry about and the longer form of it doesn't add much in way of clarity. IDEs will tell you to refactor that variable out and use the direct return method and they're optimised using best practices.
Steve.
Philip G
14,600 PointsHi Steve, Thanks for confirming that to me. I think it's clear for me now
Steve Hunter
57,712 PointsNo problem! :-)
Craig Dennis
Treehouse TeacherYep +1, like Nike said "Just Return It" ... or something like that.
Scott Evans
4,236 PointsScott Evans
4,236 PointsAs far as i'm aware, although I'm not 100% on Java Best practices, the logical part of my brain tells me that the 2nd option would be preferable. This is to save the memory used when assigning the variable in the first option.
This is not a definitive answer, but purely a educated opinion.