Too many return-statements = bad style?

[Marco Aschwanden]

Hi

I checked the other day  a module of mine with pylint. And for some 
function it told me, that I was using too many return-statements in my 
code... there were about 5 or 7 of them in my function.

Through books I learned, that there should be only 1 return statement in a 
function. This makes for clear code - they said. I tried to stick to this 
principle for a very long time... ending up with deeper and deeper nested 
if-then-else-clauses and hided code-sections with clever if-then-clauses 
when the return value was already clear or when the code was not eligible 
for this specific return value:

# Example 1: "Good" style according to the books
def func(value):
    return_value = xyz
    IF not wrong value:
       do something does change return_value
       IF do soemthing worked out:
          do something else...

    IF not return_value == xyz:
       do something other with return_value

    return return_value

Meanwhile I have adopted a style that jumps out of the function when some 
condition is reached. I don't have to bother afterwards with this case. In 
my eyes, this style produces more readable code:

# Example 2: "Bad" style
def func(value):
    return_value = xyz
    IF wrong_value:
       return wrong_value

    do something does change return_value
    IF not do soemthing worked out:
       return another_wrong_value

    do something other with return_value

    return return_value

This pylint made me feel guilty again... so I wonder: How do you handle 
this? Is "my" style really bad style?

Thanks for your hints in advance,
Greetings,
Marco