Why assignment before return?

This code-pattern appears many times in pgstatfuncs.c:

Datum
pg_stat_get_blocks_fetched(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
{
Oid relid = PG_GETARG_OID(0);
int64 result;
PgStat_StatTabEntry *tabentry;

if ((tabentry = pgstat_fetch_stat_tabentry(relid)) == NULL)
result = 0;
else
result = (int64) (tabentry->blocks_fetched);

PG_RETURN_INT64(result);
}

Why do we assign this to "result" and then return, why not just:
if ((tabentry = pgstat_fetch_stat_tabentry(relid)) == NULL)
PG_RETURN_INT64(0);
else
PG_RETURN_INT64(tabentry->blocks_fetched);

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 Magnus Hagander
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