# no-useless-else

📝 Disallow `else` after a statement that exits.

💼🚫 This rule is enabled in the ✅ `recommended` [config](https://github.com/sindresorhus/eslint-plugin-unicorn#recommended-config). This rule is _disabled_ in the ☑️ `unopinionated` [config](https://github.com/sindresorhus/eslint-plugin-unicorn#recommended-config).

🔧 This rule is automatically fixable by the [`--fix` CLI option](https://eslint.org/docs/latest/user-guide/command-line-interface#--fix).

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When an `if` branch always exits, its `else` branch is unnecessary. Moving the `else` body after the `if` makes the control flow flatter.

This rule reports branches that always exit with `return`, `throw`, `break`, `continue`, or terminal direct global `process.exit()`. It uses code path analysis, so it also recognizes more complex control flow such as nested `if` statements where both branches exit, exhaustive `switch` statements, `try`/`catch`/`finally`, and infinite loops.

The autofix is conservative and skips cases where removing the `else` could affect scoped declarations, comments, or automatic semicolon insertion.

## Examples

```js
// ❌
if (foo) {
	return;
} else {
	bar();
}

// ✅
if (foo) {
	return;
}

bar();
```

```js
// ❌
if (foo) {
	throw new Error();
} else if (bar) {
	baz();
}

// ✅
if (foo) {
	throw new Error();
}

if (bar) {
	baz();
}
```

## Related rules

- ESLint [`no-else-return`](https://eslint.org/docs/latest/rules/no-else-return) only checks `else` after `return`. This rule is a broader alternative that also checks `throw`, `break`, `continue`, and terminal direct global `process.exit()`, and always reports `else if`.
- [`unicorn/prefer-early-return`](./prefer-early-return.md) is complementary. It reports whole-function conditional wrappers without `else`; this rule reports an existing `else` after an exiting branch.