在PHP中，即使在短条件语句中也应该使用花括号？

Question

In PHP, I do know curly brackets are not required for one-statement conditionals. But this question is about good coding style. (Of course when talking about style, it's usually better to just use whichever style is consistent within the project, but let's ignore that for this question.)

So: Is it better form to enclose any conditional statements in curly brackets, or is it better (e.g. more clean) to not use brackets in simple conditions:

E.g. this:

if (!file_exists($templatefile)) {
   throw new Exception('Template file does not exist');
}

or this:

if (!file_exists($templatefile))
    throw new Exception('Template file does not exist');

Are there any common consistent good practices for this, or is it just up to personal preferences?

Answer 1

I have seen way too many mistakes by people who do not use the curly brackets and then, later on, add an additional command and forget to wrap it.

My attitude is to wrap it for readability and future extensibility.