You Don't Need to Return Explicitly

In Ruby, every method returns the value of the last expression evaluated. There is no need to spell it out.

Don't do this:

def foo
  value = Foo.first(:conditions => { :label => "bar" })
  return value
end

Do this instead:

def foo
  Foo.first(:conditions => { :label => "bar" })
end

The return keyword still has its place — early returns for guard clauses, for instance — but if you are just returning the last expression, let Ruby do what Ruby does.