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

ElseExpression

Since: 1.4.0

An if expression with an else branch is basically not necessary. You can rewrite the conditions in a way that the else clause is not necessary and the code becomes simpler to read. To achieve this, use early return statements, though you may need to split the code it several smaller methods. For very simple assignments you could also use the ternary operations.

Example

class Foo
{
    public function bar($flag)
    {
        if ($flag) {
            // one branch
        } else {
            // another branch
        }
    }
}

Source https://phpmd.org/rules/cleancode.html#elseexpression

MD006 - Consider starting bulleted lists at the beginning of the line

Tags: bullet, ul, indentation

Aliases: ul-start-left

This rule is triggered when top level lists don't start at the beginning of a line:

Some text

  * List item
  * List item

To fix, ensure that top level list items are not indented:

Some test

* List item
* List item

Rationale: Starting lists at the beginning of the line means that nested list items can all be indented by the same amount when an editor's indent function or the tab key is used to indent. Starting a list 1 space in means that the indent of the first nested list is less than the indent of the second level (3 characters if you use 4 space tabs, or 1 character if you use 2 space tabs).

MD026 - Trailing punctuation in header

Tags: headers

Aliases: no-trailing-punctuation

Parameters: punctuation (string; default ".,;:!?")

This rule is triggered on any header that has a punctuation character as the last character in the line:

# This is a header.

To fix this, remove any trailing punctuation:

# This is a header

Note: The punctuation parameter can be used to specify what characters class as punctuation at the end of the header. For example, you can set it to '.,;:!' to allow headers with question marks in them, such as might be used in an FAQ.

MD026 - Trailing punctuation in header

Tags: headers

Aliases: no-trailing-punctuation

Parameters: punctuation (string; default ".,;:!?")

This rule is triggered on any header that has a punctuation character as the last character in the line:

# This is a header.

To fix this, remove any trailing punctuation:

# This is a header

Note: The punctuation parameter can be used to specify what characters class as punctuation at the end of the header. For example, you can set it to '.,;:!' to allow headers with question marks in them, such as might be used in an FAQ.

MD026 - Trailing punctuation in header

Tags: headers

Aliases: no-trailing-punctuation

Parameters: punctuation (string; default ".,;:!?")

This rule is triggered on any header that has a punctuation character as the last character in the line:

# This is a header.

To fix this, remove any trailing punctuation:

# This is a header

Note: The punctuation parameter can be used to specify what characters class as punctuation at the end of the header. For example, you can set it to '.,;:!' to allow headers with question marks in them, such as might be used in an FAQ.

MD026 - Trailing punctuation in header

Tags: headers

Aliases: no-trailing-punctuation

Parameters: punctuation (string; default ".,;:!?")

This rule is triggered on any header that has a punctuation character as the last character in the line:

# This is a header.

To fix this, remove any trailing punctuation:

# This is a header

Note: The punctuation parameter can be used to specify what characters class as punctuation at the end of the header. For example, you can set it to '.,;:!' to allow headers with question marks in them, such as might be used in an FAQ.

MD029 - Ordered list item prefix

Tags: ol

Aliases: ol-prefix

Parameters: style ("one", "ordered"; default "one")

This rule is triggered on ordered lists that do not either start with '1.' or do not have a prefix that increases in numerical order (depending on the configured style, which defaults to 'one').

Example valid list if the style is configured as 'one':

1. Do this.
1. Do that.
1. Done.

Example valid list if the style is configured as 'ordered':

1. Do this.
2. Do that.
3. Done.

MD029 - Ordered list item prefix

Tags: ol

Aliases: ol-prefix

Parameters: style ("one", "ordered"; default "one")

This rule is triggered on ordered lists that do not either start with '1.' or do not have a prefix that increases in numerical order (depending on the configured style, which defaults to 'one').

Example valid list if the style is configured as 'one':

1. Do this.
1. Do that.
1. Done.

Example valid list if the style is configured as 'ordered':

1. Do this.
2. Do that.
3. Done.

MD006 - Consider starting bulleted lists at the beginning of the line

Tags: bullet, ul, indentation

Aliases: ul-start-left

This rule is triggered when top level lists don't start at the beginning of a line:

Some text

  * List item
  * List item

To fix, ensure that top level list items are not indented:

Some test

* List item
* List item

Rationale: Starting lists at the beginning of the line means that nested list items can all be indented by the same amount when an editor's indent function or the tab key is used to indent. Starting a list 1 space in means that the indent of the first nested list is less than the indent of the second level (3 characters if you use 4 space tabs, or 1 character if you use 2 space tabs).

MD026 - Trailing punctuation in header

Tags: headers

Aliases: no-trailing-punctuation

Parameters: punctuation (string; default ".,;:!?")

This rule is triggered on any header that has a punctuation character as the last character in the line:

# This is a header.

To fix this, remove any trailing punctuation:

# This is a header

Note: The punctuation parameter can be used to specify what characters class as punctuation at the end of the header. For example, you can set it to '.,;:!' to allow headers with question marks in them, such as might be used in an FAQ.

MD026 - Trailing punctuation in header

Tags: headers

Aliases: no-trailing-punctuation

Parameters: punctuation (string; default ".,;:!?")

This rule is triggered on any header that has a punctuation character as the last character in the line:

# This is a header.

To fix this, remove any trailing punctuation:

# This is a header

Note: The punctuation parameter can be used to specify what characters class as punctuation at the end of the header. For example, you can set it to '.,;:!' to allow headers with question marks in them, such as might be used in an FAQ.

MD026 - Trailing punctuation in header

Tags: headers

Aliases: no-trailing-punctuation

Parameters: punctuation (string; default ".,;:!?")

This rule is triggered on any header that has a punctuation character as the last character in the line:

# This is a header.

To fix this, remove any trailing punctuation:

# This is a header

Note: The punctuation parameter can be used to specify what characters class as punctuation at the end of the header. For example, you can set it to '.,;:!' to allow headers with question marks in them, such as might be used in an FAQ.

MD026 - Trailing punctuation in header

Tags: headers

Aliases: no-trailing-punctuation

Parameters: punctuation (string; default ".,;:!?")

This rule is triggered on any header that has a punctuation character as the last character in the line:

# This is a header.

To fix this, remove any trailing punctuation:

# This is a header

Note: The punctuation parameter can be used to specify what characters class as punctuation at the end of the header. For example, you can set it to '.,;:!' to allow headers with question marks in them, such as might be used in an FAQ.

MD026 - Trailing punctuation in header

Tags: headers

Aliases: no-trailing-punctuation

Parameters: punctuation (string; default ".,;:!?")

This rule is triggered on any header that has a punctuation character as the last character in the line:

# This is a header.

To fix this, remove any trailing punctuation:

# This is a header

Note: The punctuation parameter can be used to specify what characters class as punctuation at the end of the header. For example, you can set it to '.,;:!' to allow headers with question marks in them, such as might be used in an FAQ.

MD026 - Trailing punctuation in header

Tags: headers

Aliases: no-trailing-punctuation

Parameters: punctuation (string; default ".,;:!?")

This rule is triggered on any header that has a punctuation character as the last character in the line:

# This is a header.

To fix this, remove any trailing punctuation:

# This is a header

Note: The punctuation parameter can be used to specify what characters class as punctuation at the end of the header. For example, you can set it to '.,;:!' to allow headers with question marks in them, such as might be used in an FAQ.

MD026 - Trailing punctuation in header

Tags: headers

Aliases: no-trailing-punctuation

Parameters: punctuation (string; default ".,;:!?")

This rule is triggered on any header that has a punctuation character as the last character in the line:

# This is a header.

To fix this, remove any trailing punctuation:

# This is a header

Note: The punctuation parameter can be used to specify what characters class as punctuation at the end of the header. For example, you can set it to '.,;:!' to allow headers with question marks in them, such as might be used in an FAQ.

MD026 - Trailing punctuation in header

Tags: headers

Aliases: no-trailing-punctuation

Parameters: punctuation (string; default ".,;:!?")

This rule is triggered on any header that has a punctuation character as the last character in the line:

# This is a header.

To fix this, remove any trailing punctuation:

# This is a header

Note: The punctuation parameter can be used to specify what characters class as punctuation at the end of the header. For example, you can set it to '.,;:!' to allow headers with question marks in them, such as might be used in an FAQ.

MD026 - Trailing punctuation in header

Tags: headers

Aliases: no-trailing-punctuation

Parameters: punctuation (string; default ".,;:!?")

This rule is triggered on any header that has a punctuation character as the last character in the line:

# This is a header.

To fix this, remove any trailing punctuation:

# This is a header

Note: The punctuation parameter can be used to specify what characters class as punctuation at the end of the header. For example, you can set it to '.,;:!' to allow headers with question marks in them, such as might be used in an FAQ.

MD006 - Consider starting bulleted lists at the beginning of the line

Tags: bullet, ul, indentation

Aliases: ul-start-left

This rule is triggered when top level lists don't start at the beginning of a line:

Some text

  * List item
  * List item

To fix, ensure that top level list items are not indented:

Some test

* List item
* List item

Rationale: Starting lists at the beginning of the line means that nested list items can all be indented by the same amount when an editor's indent function or the tab key is used to indent. Starting a list 1 space in means that the indent of the first nested list is less than the indent of the second level (3 characters if you use 4 space tabs, or 1 character if you use 2 space tabs).