This cop checks if the length of a method exceeds some maximum value. Comment lines can optionally be ignored. The maximum allowed length is configurable.

This cop checks that the cyclomatic complexity of methods is not higher than the configured maximum. The cyclomatic complexity is the number of linearly independent paths through a method. The algorithm counts decision points and adds one.

An if statement (or unless or ?:) increases the complexity by one. An else branch does not, since it doesn't add a decision point. The && operator (or keyword and) can be converted to a nested if statement, and ||/or is shorthand for a sequence of ifs, so they also add one. Loops can be said to have an exit condition, so they add one.

This cop tries to produce a complexity score that's a measure of the complexity the reader experiences when looking at a method. For that reason it considers when nodes as something that doesn't add as much complexity as an if or a &&. Except if it's one of those special case/when constructs where there's no expression after case. Then the cop treats it as an if/elsif/elsif... and lets all the when nodes count. In contrast to the CyclomaticComplexity cop, this cop considers else nodes as adding complexity.

Example:

def my_method                   # 1
  if cond                       # 1
    case var                    # 2 (0.8 + 4 * 0.2, rounded)
    when 1 then func_one
    when 2 then func_two
    when 3 then func_three
    when 4..10 then func_other
    end
  else                          # 1
    do_something until a && b   # 2
  end                           # ===
end                             # 7 complexity points

Cognitive Complexity

Cognitive Complexity is a measure of how difficult a unit of code is to intuitively understand. Unlike Cyclomatic Complexity, which determines how difficult your code will be to test, Cognitive Complexity tells you how difficult your code will be to read and comprehend.

A method's cognitive complexity is based on a few simple rules:

• Code is not considered more complex when it uses shorthand that the language provides for collapsing multiple statements into one
• Code is considered more complex for each "break in the linear flow of the code"
• Code is considered more complex when "flow breaking structures are nested"

Further reading

• Cognitive Complexity docs
• Cognitive Complexity: A new way of measuring understandability

This cop checks that the ABC size of methods is not higher than the configured maximum. The ABC size is based on assignments, branches (method calls), and conditions. See http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?AbcMetric and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_Software_Metric.

This cop is designed to help you transition from mutable string literals to frozen string literals. It will add the comment # frozen_string_literal: true to the top of files to enable frozen string literals. Frozen string literals may be default in future Ruby. The comment will be added below a shebang and encoding comment.

Note that the cop will ignore files where the comment exists but is set to false instead of true.

Example: EnforcedStyle: always (default)

# The `always` style will always add the frozen string literal comment
# to a file, regardless of the Ruby version or if `freeze` or `<<` are
# called on a string literal.
# bad
module Bar
  # ...
end

# good
# frozen_string_literal: true

module Bar
  # ...
end

# good
# frozen_string_literal: false

module Bar
  # ...
end

Example: EnforcedStyle: never

# The `never` will enforce that the frozen string literal comment does
# not exist in a file.
# bad
# frozen_string_literal: true

module Baz
  # ...
end

# good
module Baz
  # ...
end

Example: EnforcedStyle: always_true

# The `always_true` style enforces that the frozen string literal
# comment is set to `true`. This is a stricter option than `always`
# and forces projects to use frozen string literals.
# bad
# frozen_string_literal: false

module Baz
  # ...
end

# bad
module Baz
  # ...
end

# good
# frozen_string_literal: true

module Bar
  # ...
end

This cop checks for missing top-level documentation of classes and modules. Classes with no body are exempt from the check and so are namespace modules - modules that have nothing in their bodies except classes, other modules, constant definitions or constant visibility declarations.

The documentation requirement is annulled if the class or module has a "#:nodoc:" comment next to it. Likewise, "#:nodoc: all" does the same for all its children.

Example:

# bad
class Person
  # ...
end

module Math
end

# good
# Description/Explanation of Person class
class Person
  # ...
end

# allowed
  # Class without body
  class Person
  end

  # Namespace - A namespace can be a class or a module
  # Containing a class
  module Namespace
    # Description/Explanation of Person class
    class Person
      # ...
    end
  end

  # Containing constant visibility declaration
  module Namespace
    class Private
    end

    private_constant :Private
  end

  # Containing constant definition
  module Namespace
    Public = Class.new
  end

This cop checks that comment annotation keywords are written according to guidelines.

Example:

# bad
# TODO make better

# good
# TODO: make better

# bad
# TODO:make better

# good
# TODO: make better

# bad
# fixme: does not work

# good
# FIXME: does not work

# bad
# Optimize does not work

# good
# OPTIMIZE: does not work