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

Rule: no-shadowed-variable

Disallows shadowing variable declarations.

Rationale

When a variable in a local scope and a variable in the containing scope have the same name, shadowing occurs. Shadowing makes it impossible to access the variable in the containing scope and obscures to what value an identifier actually refers. Compare the following snippets:

const a = 'no shadow';
function print() {
    console.log(a);
}
print(); // logs 'no shadow'.

const a = 'no shadow';
function print() {
    const a = 'shadow'; // TSLint will complain here.
    console.log(a);
}
print(); // logs 'shadow'.

ESLint has an equivalent rule. For more background information, refer to this MDN closure doc.

Config

You can optionally pass an object to disable checking for certain kinds of declarations. Possible keys are "class", "enum", "function", "import", "interface", "namespace", "typeAlias" and "typeParameter". You can also pass "underscore" to ignore variable names that begin with _. Just set the value to false for the check you want to disable. All checks default to true, i.e. are enabled by default. Note that you cannot disable variables and parameters.

The option "temporalDeadZone" defaults to true which shows errors when shadowing block scoped declarations in their temporal dead zone. When set to false parameters, classes, enums and variables declared with let or const are not considered shadowed if the shadowing occurs within their temporal dead zone.

The following example shows how the "temporalDeadZone" option changes the linting result:

function fn(value) {
    if (value) {
        const tmp = value; // no error on this line if "temporalDeadZone" is false
        return tmp;
    }
    let tmp = undefined;
    if (!value) {
        const tmp = value; // this line always contains an error
        return tmp;
    }
}

Examples

"no-shadowed-variable": true

"no-shadowed-variable": true,[object Object]

Schema

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "class": {
      "type": "boolean"
    },
    "enum": {
      "type": "boolean"
    },
    "function": {
      "type": "boolean"
    },
    "import": {
      "type": "boolean"
    },
    "interface": {
      "type": "boolean"
    },
    "namespace": {
      "type": "boolean"
    },
    "typeAlias": {
      "type": "boolean"
    },
    "typeParameter": {
      "type": "boolean"
    },
    "temporalDeadZone": {
      "type": "boolean"
    },
    "underscore": {
      "type": "boolean"
    }
  }
}

For more information see this page.

Rule: prefer-const

Requires that variable declarations use const instead of let and var if possible.

If a variable is only assigned to once when it is declared, it should be declared using 'const'

Notes

• Has Fix

Config

An optional object containing the property "destructuring" with two possible values:

• "any" (default) - If any variable in destructuring can be const, this rule warns for those variables.
• "all" - Only warns if all variables in destructuring can be const.

Examples

"prefer-const": true

"prefer-const": true,[object Object]

Schema

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "destructuring": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "all",
        "any"
      ]
    }
  }
}

For more information see this page.

Rule: semicolon

Enforces consistent semicolon usage at the end of every statement.

Notes

• Has Fix

Config

One of the following arguments must be provided:

• "always" enforces semicolons at the end of every statement.
• "never" disallows semicolons at the end of every statement except for when they are necessary.

The following arguments may be optionally provided:

• "ignore-interfaces" skips checking semicolons at the end of interface members.
• "ignore-bound-class-methods" skips checking semicolons at the end of bound class methods.
• "strict-bound-class-methods" disables any special handling of bound class methods and treats them as any other assignment. This option overrides "ignore-bound-class-methods".

Examples

"semicolon": true,always

"semicolon": true,never

"semicolon": true,always,ignore-interfaces

"semicolon": true,always,ignore-bound-class-methods

Schema

{
  "type": "array",
  "items": [
    {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "always",
        "never"
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "ignore-interfaces"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "additionalItems": false
}

For more information see this page.

Rule: no-object-literal-type-assertion

Forbids an object literal to appear in a type assertion expression. Casting to any or to unknown is still allowed.

Rationale

Always prefer const x: T = { ... }; to const x = { ... } as T;. The type assertion in the latter case is either unnecessary or hides an error. The compiler will warn for excess properties with this syntax, but not missing required fields. For example: const x: { foo: number } = {} will fail to compile, but const x = {} as { foo: number } will succeed. Additionally, the const assertion const x = { foo: 1 } as const, introduced in TypeScript 3.4, is considered beneficial and is ignored by this rule.

Notes

• TypeScript Only

Config

One option may be configured:

• allow-arguments allows type assertions to be used on object literals inside call expressions.

Examples

"no-object-literal-type-assertion": true

"no-object-literal-type-assertion": true,[object Object]

Schema

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "allow-arguments": {
      "type": "boolean"
    }
  },
  "additionalProperties": false
}

For more information see this page.