According to Robert11 :

Whenever I have wired a new wall switch, I have always brought a piece of NM
wire from the source to the switch, the black going to one terminal.
Then I ran a second piece of NM with the black from the other switch
terminal to the new light fixture, along with its white lead.
(the whites would also be tied together for the two pieces of NM at the
switch box).

I see in the book (p 110) where it is apparently permissible to just use a
single piece of NM to the switch, with the white being re-marked black.
This NM would then effectively be placed in series with the normal black
wire from the source and to the fixture.
(the white from the source also going to the light fixture).

Either approach is perfectly fine.

People generally tend to use the "single NM" (it's called "switch leg")
if it's more convenient for unswitched power to go into the fixture first.

Many books appear to prefer the switch leg approach, but I've never
been quite sure why. It may be because typical wiring practises
tend to mean that they use fixtures as junction/distribution points,
and it probably tends to use less wire - perhaps because it's usually
easier to route wire through ceilings than dodge around walls.

I happen to prefer to use switch boxes as the junction/distribution
points, and don't mind a little extra work.

In some cases, switch leg is more convenient. Ie: if you change over
a switch-legged ceiling light to a fan/light combo, since you have
both switched (say for the light) and unswitched hot (say for the fan,
use the pull cord) in the box, you don't have to replace the
switchleg with 3 wire in order to have the fan on, and light off.

I personally don't like switch leg, because it means that boxes
are live even when switched off (not that you should rely on that
anyway!), and that means that white wires carry hot. Since I plan
my systems with the hot going to the switch first, it doesn't really
use much more NM if at all.

I install 3-wire if I'm planning on using a ceiling fan.
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.