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

Checks for operators, variables, literals, lambda, proc and nonmutating methods used in void context.

Example: CheckForMethodsWithNoSideEffects: false (default)

# bad
def some_method
  some_num * 10
  do_something
end

def some_method(some_var)
  some_var
  do_something
end

Example: CheckForMethodsWithNoSideEffects: true

# bad
def some_method(some_array)
  some_array.sort
  do_something(some_array)
end

# good
def some_method
  do_something
  some_num * 10
end

def some_method(some_var)
  do_something
  some_var
end

def some_method(some_array)
  some_array.sort!
  do_something(some_array)
end

Looks for expressions containing multiple binary operators where precedence is ambiguous due to lack of parentheses. For example, in 1 + 2 * 3, the multiplication will happen before the addition, but lexically it appears that the addition will happen first.

The cop does not consider unary operators (ie. !a or -b) or comparison operators (ie. a =~ b) because those are not ambiguous.

NOTE: Ranges are handled by Lint/AmbiguousRange.

Example:

# bad
a + b * c
a || b && c
a ** b + c

# good (different precedence)
a + (b * c)
a || (b && c)
(a ** b) + c

# good (same precedence)
a + b + c
a * b / c % d

Checks for operators, variables, literals, lambda, proc and nonmutating methods used in void context.

Example: CheckForMethodsWithNoSideEffects: false (default)

# bad
def some_method
  some_num * 10
  do_something
end

def some_method(some_var)
  some_var
  do_something
end

Example: CheckForMethodsWithNoSideEffects: true

# bad
def some_method(some_array)
  some_array.sort
  do_something(some_array)
end

# good
def some_method
  do_something
  some_num * 10
end

def some_method(some_var)
  do_something
  some_var
end

def some_method(some_array)
  some_array.sort!
  do_something(some_array)
end

Checks for operators, variables, literals, lambda, proc and nonmutating methods used in void context.

Example: CheckForMethodsWithNoSideEffects: false (default)

# bad
def some_method
  some_num * 10
  do_something
end

def some_method(some_var)
  some_var
  do_something
end

Example: CheckForMethodsWithNoSideEffects: true

# bad
def some_method(some_array)
  some_array.sort
  do_something(some_array)
end

# good
def some_method
  do_something
  some_num * 10
end

def some_method(some_var)
  do_something
  some_var
end

def some_method(some_array)
  some_array.sort!
  do_something(some_array)
end

Do not mix named captures and numbered captures in a Regexp literal because numbered capture is ignored if they're mixed. Replace numbered captures with non-capturing groupings or named captures.

Example:

# bad
/(?<foo>FOO)(BAR)/

# good
/(?<foo>FOO)(?<bar>BAR)/

# good
/(?<foo>FOO)(?:BAR)/

# good
/(FOO)(BAR)/</foo></bar></foo></foo>

Checks for operators, variables, literals, lambda, proc and nonmutating methods used in void context.

Example: CheckForMethodsWithNoSideEffects: false (default)

# bad
def some_method
  some_num * 10
  do_something
end

def some_method(some_var)
  some_var
  do_something
end

Example: CheckForMethodsWithNoSideEffects: true

# bad
def some_method(some_array)
  some_array.sort
  do_something(some_array)
end

# good
def some_method
  do_something
  some_num * 10
end

def some_method(some_var)
  do_something
  some_var
end

def some_method(some_array)
  some_array.sort!
  do_something(some_array)
end

Checks for blocks without a body. Such empty blocks are typically an oversight or we should provide a comment be clearer what we're aiming for.

Empty lambdas and procs are ignored by default.

NOTE: For backwards compatibility, the configuration that allows/disallows empty lambdas and procs is called AllowEmptyLambdas, even though it also applies to procs.

Example:

# bad
items.each { |item| }

# good
items.each { |item| puts item }

Example: AllowComments: true (default)

# good
items.each do |item|
  # TODO: implement later (inner comment)
end

items.each { |item| } # TODO: implement later (inline comment)

Example: AllowComments: false

# bad
items.each do |item|
  # TODO: implement later (inner comment)
end

items.each { |item| } # TODO: implement later (inline comment)

Example: AllowEmptyLambdas: true (default)

# good
allow(subject).to receive(:callable).and_return(-> {})

placeholder = lambda do
end
(callable || placeholder).call

proc { }

Proc.new { }

Example: AllowEmptyLambdas: false

# bad
allow(subject).to receive(:callable).and_return(-> {})

placeholder = lambda do
end
(callable || placeholder).call

proc { }

Proc.new { }