Returning the comparison results

Over the last couple weeks I have been looking at some of my old code as well as going over other peoples projects. A personal pet peeve of mine keeps popping up in the code the worst part is when I started out programming I did the same thing. It’s when you do a Boolean comparison then return true or false rather than just returning the results of the comparison. Below is an example of what I am talking about.

   21 if (foo == otherFoo)

   22 {

   23     return true;

   24 }

   25 else

   26 {

   27     return false;

   28 }

The above is an example of what not to do. There have been many times in my life where I have done this not thinking about what I was doing. I am glad to say that time has passed. I have talked to others about it and they say they do it because it is more explicit and easier to read. I have a hard time agreeing with this stance how can the above be easier to read then the following.

   21 return foo == otherFoo;  

It’s short simple and easy to read.