php returning mixed data types - good or bad

Question

When returning values in php, is it considered good or bad practice to return mixed data types. I\'m working on a project where I am constantly faced with methods that return a

Answer 1

Returning mixed type is bad, at least today in 2013. Boom! The way to go is to split this:

BAD, mixed return type style:

function checkResult($data)
{
    if ($data) {
        ...
        return $stuff;
    } else {
        return false;
    } 
}

People will need additional logic to work checkRsult(), and they never know exactly what type will return.

GOOD, clearly fixed return type style:

Maybe the example is not really good, but it shows the way to go.

function doesResultExist($data)
{
    if ($data) {
        return true;
    }
    // default return
    return false;
}

function getResultData()
{
    ...
    return $stuff;   
}