That's the "single entry, single exit" guideline. See https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/118703/where-did-the-notion-of-one-return-only-com

That's the "single entry, single exit" guideline. See https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/118703/where-did-the-notion-of-one-return-only-come-from https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/1187... and places it links to (like https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36707/should-a-function-have-only-one-return-statement https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36707/should-a-function-... ). I've heard second-hand about places which follow that guideline. I'm against it, for reasons you and others say. BTW, those are usually called "guards", not "Gates". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guard_(computer_science) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guard_(computer_science) .