Rectifying inconsistent return points

Question

I have a zillion-line method somebody else wrote that I want to refactor using PhpStorm. Let's say that in highly abbreviated form, its basic structure looks something like this:

myMethodName($input){
    if ($input === self::STRING_THAT_PROMPTS_ERROR) {
        //Branch One
        return new ErrorResponse('You messed up.');
    } elseif ($input === self::HAPPY_STRING_ONE) {\
        //Branch Two
        if(!$someOtherThing) {
            return new HappyResponse('Some other thing made us happy-happy.');
        }
        //We do lots of verbose stuff here and then, finally ...
        $output = new HappyResponse('some value');
    } elseif ($input === self::HAPPY_STRING_TWO) {
        //Branch Three
        //We do lots of verbose stuff here and then, finally ...
        $output = new HappyResponse('some other value');
    } else {
        //Branch Four
        return new ErrorResponse('Oh no, default.');
    } 
    return $output;
}

If I try to take Branch Two and extract it into its own method, PhpStorm rightly complaints about inconsistent return points because of the early return.

So my question is: How do I keep doing an early return with my first HappyResponse and still extract my verbose code into its own method? I thought about throwing and catching an exception for the early return, but since nothing is going wrong in that scenario, an throwing an exception felt like a really terrible smell.

Is there an easy way to make this type of thing work?

Answer 1

Since the overall structure is if/else if/... you don't need to return in each branch. Each branch should assign the $output variable that gets returned at the end.

function myMethodName($input){
    if ($input === self::STRING_THAT_PROMPTS_ERROR) {
        //Branch One
        $output = new ErrorResponse('You messed up.');
    } elseif ($input === self::HAPPY_STRING_ONE) {\
        //Branch Two
        if(!$someOtherThing) {
            $output = new HappyResponse('Some other thing made us happy-happy.');
        } else {
            //We do lots of verbose stuff here and then, finally ...
            $output = new HappyResponse('some value');
        }
    } elseif ($input === self::HAPPY_STRING_TWO) {
        //Branch Three
        //We do lots of verbose stuff here and then, finally ...
        $output = new HappyResponse('some other value');
    } else {
        //Branch Four
        $output = new ErrorResponse('Oh no, default.');
    } 
    return $output;
}

When you move the branch code into its own function, that function can return the $output value, and you'll do

$output = new_function(...);