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

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 unused method arguments.

Example:

# bad
def some_method(used, unused, _unused_but_allowed)
  puts used
end

# good
def some_method(used, _unused, _unused_but_allowed)
  puts used
end

Example: AllowUnusedKeywordArguments: false (default)

# bad
def do_something(used, unused: 42)
  used
end

Example: AllowUnusedKeywordArguments: true

# good
def do_something(used, unused: 42)
  used
end

Example: IgnoreEmptyMethods: true (default)

# good
def do_something(unused)
end

Example: IgnoreEmptyMethods: false

# bad
def do_something(unused)
end

Example: IgnoreNotImplementedMethods: true (default)

# good
def do_something(unused)
  raise NotImplementedError
end

def do_something_else(unused)
  fail "TODO"
end

Example: IgnoreNotImplementedMethods: false

# bad
def do_something(unused)
  raise NotImplementedError
end

def do_something_else(unused)
  fail "TODO"
end

Checks for unused block arguments.

Example:

# bad
do_something do |used, unused|
  puts used
end

do_something do |bar|
  puts :foo
end

define_method(:foo) do |bar|
  puts :baz
end

# good
do_something do |used, _unused|
  puts used
end

do_something do
  puts :foo
end

define_method(:foo) do |_bar|
  puts :baz
end

Example: IgnoreEmptyBlocks: true (default)

# good
do_something { |unused| }

Example: IgnoreEmptyBlocks: false

# bad
do_something { |unused| }

Example: AllowUnusedKeywordArguments: false (default)

# bad
do_something do |unused: 42|
  foo
end

Example: AllowUnusedKeywordArguments: true

# good
do_something do |unused: 42|
  foo
end

Checks for the use of local variable names from an outer scope in block arguments or block-local variables. This mirrors the warning given by ruby -cw prior to Ruby 2.6: "shadowing outer local variable - foo".

NOTE: Shadowing of variables in block passed to Ractor.new is allowed because Ractor should not access outer variables. eg. following style is encouraged:

```ruby
worker_id, pipe = env
Ractor.new(worker_id, pipe) do |worker_id, pipe|
end
```

Example:

# bad

def some_method
  foo = 1

  2.times do |foo| # shadowing outer `foo`
    do_something(foo)
  end
end

Example:

# good

def some_method
  foo = 1

  2.times do |bar|
    do_something(bar)
  end
end

Checks for every useless assignment to local variable in every scope. The basic idea for this cop was from the warning of ruby -cw:

assigned but unused variable - foo

Currently this cop has advanced logic that detects unreferenced reassignments and properly handles varied cases such as branch, loop, rescue, ensure, etc.

NOTE: Given the assignment foo = 1, bar = 2, removing unused variables can lead to a syntax error, so this case is not autocorrected.

Safety:

This cop's autocorrection is unsafe because removing assignment from operator assignment can cause NameError if this assignment has been used to declare local variable. For example, replacing a ||= 1 to a || 1 may cause "undefined local variable or method `a' for main:Object (NameError)".

Example:

# bad

def some_method
  some_var = 1
  do_something
end

Example:

# good

def some_method
  some_var = 1
  do_something(some_var)
end

Checks for unnecessary require statement.

The following features are unnecessary require statement because they are already loaded. e.g. Ruby 2.2:

ruby -ve 'p $LOADED_FEATURES.reject { |feature| %r|/| =~ feature }'
ruby 2.2.8p477 (2017-09-14 revision 59906) [x86_64-darwin13]
["enumerator.so", "rational.so", "complex.so", "thread.rb"]

Below are the features that each TargetRubyVersion targets.

* 2.0+ ... `enumerator`
* 2.1+ ... `thread`
* 2.2+ ... Add `rational` and `complex` above
* 2.5+ ... Add `pp` above
* 2.7+ ... Add `ruby2_keywords` above
* 3.1+ ... Add `fiber` above
* 3.2+ ... `set`

This cop target those features.

Example:

# bad
require 'unloaded_feature'
require 'thread'

# good
require 'unloaded_feature'

Checks for excessive nesting of conditional and looping constructs.

You can configure if blocks are considered using the CountBlocks option. When set to false (the default) blocks are not counted towards the nesting level. Set to true to count blocks as well.

The maximum level of nesting allowed is configurable.

Sort globbed results by default in Ruby 3.0. This cop checks for redundant sort method to Dir.glob and Dir[].

Safety:

This cop is unsafe, in case of having a file and a directory with identical names, since directory will be loaded before the file, which will break exe/files.rb that rely on exe.rb file.

Example:

# bad
Dir.glob('./lib/**/*.rb').sort.each do |file|
end

Dir['./lib/**/*.rb'].sort.each do |file|
end

# good
Dir.glob('./lib/**/*.rb').each do |file|
end

Dir['./lib/**/*.rb'].each do |file|
end

Checks for unused block arguments.

Example:

# bad
do_something do |used, unused|
  puts used
end

do_something do |bar|
  puts :foo
end

define_method(:foo) do |bar|
  puts :baz
end

# good
do_something do |used, _unused|
  puts used
end

do_something do
  puts :foo
end

define_method(:foo) do |_bar|
  puts :baz
end

Example: IgnoreEmptyBlocks: true (default)

# good
do_something { |unused| }

Example: IgnoreEmptyBlocks: false

# bad
do_something { |unused| }

Example: AllowUnusedKeywordArguments: false (default)

# bad
do_something do |unused: 42|
  foo
end

Example: AllowUnusedKeywordArguments: true

# good
do_something do |unused: 42|
  foo
end

Requires a gemspec to have rubygems_mfa_required metadata set.

This setting tells RubyGems that MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) is required for accounts to be able perform privileged operations, such as (see RubyGems' documentation for the full list of privileged operations):

• gem push
• gem yank
• gem owner --add/remove
• adding or removing owners using gem ownership page

This helps make your gem more secure, as users can be more confident that gem updates were pushed by maintainers.

Example:

# bad
Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
  # no `rubygems_mfa_required` metadata specified
end

# good
Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
  spec.metadata = {
    'rubygems_mfa_required' => 'true'
  }
end

# good
Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
  spec.metadata['rubygems_mfa_required'] = 'true'
end

# bad
Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
  spec.metadata = {
    'rubygems_mfa_required' => 'false'
  }
end

# good
Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
  spec.metadata = {
    'rubygems_mfa_required' => 'true'
  }
end

# bad
Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
  spec.metadata['rubygems_mfa_required'] = 'false'
end

# good
Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
  spec.metadata['rubygems_mfa_required'] = 'true'
end

Checks for unused method arguments.

Example:

# bad
def some_method(used, unused, _unused_but_allowed)
  puts used
end

# good
def some_method(used, _unused, _unused_but_allowed)
  puts used
end

Example: AllowUnusedKeywordArguments: false (default)

# bad
def do_something(used, unused: 42)
  used
end

Example: AllowUnusedKeywordArguments: true

# good
def do_something(used, unused: 42)
  used
end

Example: IgnoreEmptyMethods: true (default)

# good
def do_something(unused)
end

Example: IgnoreEmptyMethods: false

# bad
def do_something(unused)
end

Example: IgnoreNotImplementedMethods: true (default)

# good
def do_something(unused)
  raise NotImplementedError
end

def do_something_else(unused)
  fail "TODO"
end

Example: IgnoreNotImplementedMethods: false

# bad
def do_something(unused)
  raise NotImplementedError
end

def do_something_else(unused)
  fail "TODO"
end

Checks for every useless assignment to local variable in every scope. The basic idea for this cop was from the warning of ruby -cw:

assigned but unused variable - foo

Currently this cop has advanced logic that detects unreferenced reassignments and properly handles varied cases such as branch, loop, rescue, ensure, etc.

NOTE: Given the assignment foo = 1, bar = 2, removing unused variables can lead to a syntax error, so this case is not autocorrected.

Safety:

This cop's autocorrection is unsafe because removing assignment from operator assignment can cause NameError if this assignment has been used to declare local variable. For example, replacing a ||= 1 to a || 1 may cause "undefined local variable or method `a' for main:Object (NameError)".

Example:

# bad

def some_method
  some_var = 1
  do_something
end

Example:

# good

def some_method
  some_var = 1
  do_something(some_var)
end