Return statement at the end of try or after catch blocks

Question

Hi
Can anyone tell me which is the better practice - to put the return statement at the end of try block or after all the catch blocks ie at the end of method.
Eg
Method A()
String str;
try{
str= [some code]
return str
catch(Exception e)
System.out.println("Exception");
} // end of method
OR
Method B()
String str;
try{
str= [some code]
}catch(Exception e)
System.out.println("Exception");
return str
} // end of method

Answer 1

I always try to work with only one exit point for each method.
For readability I always put the return statement as close to the end of the method as possible.
In this particular question,
I think you should put the return at the end of the method (for readability, since this is what you are
familiar with), but when I have a try-catch clause, I usually have an unrecoverable error and
should throw this further down the tree, so it usually becomes
try{
   return   
}catch(...){
   // write out some logging information
   rethrow exception or throw another exception
}I think you should NEVER reflect the occurence of an error in the return-value of the
method when an unrecoverable exception occurs. Just rethrow this exception or throw another method.
Other methods look like
   Object result = new...
   return result;As for the specific case of a repetitive if-case:
This is possible in two versions:
With one return and a result-object
Object result = new ...
if(..)
   result = ...
else if(..)
   result = ...
return result;With every time a return
if(...)
   return ...;
else if(...)
   return ...;For me the above two possibilities make no difference,
but I find the second version (which I hated when I began programming)
to be somewhat more of a (self-made) standard nowadays.
But I do not think this particular case makes much of a difference.
kind regards,