title: Why is "else" rarely used after "if x then return"?
body: <p>This method:</p>
  
  <pre><code>boolean containsSmiley(String s) {
      if (s == null) {
          return false;
      }
      else {
          return s.contains(":)");
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>can equivalently be written:</p>
  
  <pre><code>boolean containsSmiley(String s) {
      if (s == null) {
          return false;
      }
  
      return s.contains(":)");
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>In my experience, the second form is seen more often, especially in more complex methods (where there may be several such exit points), and the same is true for "throw" as well as "return". Yet the first form arguably makes the conditional structure of the code more explicit. Are there any reasons to prefer one over the other?</p>
  
  <p>(Related: <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36707/should-a-function-have-only-one-return-statement">Should a function have only one return statement?</a>)</p>