Method with multiple return points

Reports methods with too many return points. Methods with too many return points may be confusing, and hard to refactor.

Example:

  int foo(int a) {
    if (a > 0) {
      return a
    }
    if (a < 0) return -a
    return 0
  }

Locating this inspection

By ID

Can be used to locate inspection in e.g. Qodana configuration files, where you can quickly enable or disable it, or adjust its settings.

GroovyMultipleReturnPointsPerMethod

Via Settings dialog

Path to the inspection settings via IntelliJ Platform IDE Settings dialog, when you need to adjust inspection settings directly from your IDE.

Settings or Preferences | Editor | Inspections | Groovy | Method metrics

Use the field provided below to specify the maximum acceptable number of return points a method might have.

Inspection options

Here you can find the description of settings available for the Method with multiple return points inspection, and the reference of their default values.

Return point limit: Default value:
1

Suppressing Inspection

You can suppress this inspection by placing the following comment marker before the code fragment where you no longer want messages from this inspection to appear:

//noinspection GroovyMultipleReturnPointsPerMethod

More detailed instructions as well as other ways and options that you have can be found in the product documentation:

IntelliJ IDEA 2025.2

Inspection Details
By default bundled with:	IntelliJ IDEA 2025.2, Qodana for JVM 2025.2,

Last modified: 18 September 2025