Is returning out of a switch statement considered a better practice than using break

Question

Option 1 - switch using return   function myFunction opt         switch  opt                 case 1  return  One           case 2  return  Two           case 3  return  Three            default  return                   Option 2 - switch using break   function myFunction opt         var retVal            switch  opt                 case 1               retVal    One               break           case 2               retVal    Two               break           case 3               retVal    Three               break             return retVal      I know that both work  but is one more of a best practice   I tend to like Option 1 - switch using return best  as it s cleaner and simpler     Here is a jsFiddle of my specific example using the technique mentioned in  ic3b3rg s comments   var SFAIC        SFAIC common          masterPages                 cs   CS            cp   CP               contentPages                 cs   CSContent            cp   CPContent                 function getElementPrefix page         return  page in SFAIC common masterPages            SFAIC common masterPages page             page in SFAIC common contentPages                SFAIC common contentPages page                undefined      To call the function  I would do so in the following ways   getElementPrefix SFAIC common masterPages cs   getElementPrefix SFAIC common masterPages cp   getElementPrefix SFAIC common contentPages cs   getElementPrefix SFAIC common contentPages cp     Problem here is that it always returns undefined   I m guessing that it s because it s passing in the actual value of the object literal and not the property   What would I do to fix this using the technique described in  ic3b3rg s comments

User · Answer

It depends  if your function only consists of the switch statement  then I think that its fine  However  if you want to perform any other operations within that function  its probably not a great idea  You also may have to consider your requirements right now versus in the future  If you want to change your function from option one to option two  more refactoring will be needed   However  given that within if else statements it is best practice to do the following   var foo    bar    if foo     bar         return 0    else       return 100      Based on this  the argument could be made that option one is better practice   In short  there s no clear answer  so as long as your code adheres to a consistent  readable  maintainable standard - that is to say don t mix and match options one and two throughout your application  that is the best practice you should be following

User · Answer

A break will allow you continue processing in the function   Just returning out of the switch is fine if that s all you want to do in the function

User · Answer

Neither  because both are quite verbose for a very simple task  You can just do  let result        1   One     2   Two     3   Three     opt      Default        opt can be 1  2  3 or anything  default   This  of course  also works with strings  a mix of both or without a default case  let result         first    One      second    Two     3   Three     opt                    opt can be  first    second  or 3  Explanation  It works by creating an object where the options cases are the keys and the results are the values  By putting the option into the brackets you access the value of the key that matches the expression via the bracket notation  This returns undefined if the expression inside the brackets is not a valid key  We can detect this undefined-case by using the nullish coalescing operator    and return a default value  Example   x000D   x000D  console log  Using a valid case         1   One     2   Two     3   Three     1      Default    console log  Using an invalid case defaulting         1   One     2   Two     3   Three     7      Default   x000D   as-console-wrapper  max-height  100   important top  0   x000D   x000D   x000D

[javascript] Is returning out of a switch statement considered a better practice than using break?

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