clang-tidy - readability-else-after-return — Extra Clang Tools 16.0.6 documentation

# Extra Clang Tools 16.0.6 documentation

## clang-tidy - readability-else-after-return

# readability-else-after-return

LLVM Coding Standards advises to reduce indentation where possible and where it makes understanding code easier. Early exit is one of the suggested enforcements of that. Please do not use `else` or `else if` after something that interrupts control flow - like `return`, `break`, `continue`, `throw`.

The following piece of code illustrates how the check works. This piece of code:

    void foo(int Value) {
      int Local = 0;
      for (int i = 0; i < 42; i++) {
        if (Value == 1) {
          return;
        } else {
          Local++;
        }

        if (Value == 2)
          continue;
        else
          Local++;

        if (Value == 3) {
          throw 42;
        } else {
          Local++;
        }
      }
    }

Would be transformed into:

    void foo(int Value) {
      int Local = 0;
      for (int i = 0; i < 42; i++) {
        if (Value == 1) {
          return;
        }
        Local++;

        if (Value == 2)
          continue;
        Local++;

        if (Value == 3) {
          throw 42;
        }
        Local++;
      }
    }

## Options

WarnOnUnfixable

  When true, emit a warning for cases where the check can’t output a Fix-It. These can occur with declarations inside the `else` branch that would have an extended lifetime if the `else` branch was removed. Default value is true.

WarnOnConditionVariables

  When true, the check will attempt to refactor a variable defined inside the condition of the `if` statement that is used in the `else` branch defining them just before the `if` statement. This can only be done if the `if` statement is the last statement in its parent’s scope. Default value is true.

## LLVM alias

There is an alias of this check called llvm-else-after-return. In that version the options `WarnOnUnfixable` and `WarnOnConditionVariables` are both set to false by default.

This check helps to enforce this LLVM Coding Standards recommendation.