If a method performs operations on a reference type is there any need to return it?

Question

If I have a method that operates exclusively on a reference type variable (e.g. a datatable) and modifies it, is there any need to return that variable from the method??

For example, the following method goes through a datatable and trims all the values within it and then returns the datatable to the caller:

        private DataTable TrimAllDataInDataTable(DataTable dt)
        {
            foreach (DataRow row in dt.Rows)
            {
                foreach (DataColumn dc in dt.Columns)
                {
                    row[dc] = row[dc].ToString().Trim();
                }
            }

            return dt;
        }

Would it be better if this method returns void? Seems pretty pointless to return it (?), but do you think that it reads better if it returns the object after operating on it (like it does at the moment)??

Answer 1

To me, when a method returns a reference type, I expect it to be a new object. I'd pick making it return void.

A question: is there any reason for this method to not be a member of the DataTable class? I think that DataTable.TrimAllData() would work even better