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

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

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

MD009 - Trailing spaces

Tags: whitespace

Aliases: no-trailing-spaces

Parameters: br_spaces (number; default: 0)

This rule is triggered on any lines that end with whitespace. To fix this, find the line that is triggered and remove any trailing spaces from the end.

The brspaces parameter allows an exception to this rule for a specific amount of trailing spaces used to insert an explicit line break/br element. For example, set brspaces to 2 to allow exactly 2 spaces at the end of a line.

Note: you have to set brspaces to 2 or higher for this exception to take effect - you can't insert a br element with just a single trailing space, so if you set brspaces to 1, the exception will be disabled, just as if it was set to the default of 0.

MD009 - Trailing spaces

Tags: whitespace

Aliases: no-trailing-spaces

Parameters: br_spaces (number; default: 0)

This rule is triggered on any lines that end with whitespace. To fix this, find the line that is triggered and remove any trailing spaces from the end.

The brspaces parameter allows an exception to this rule for a specific amount of trailing spaces used to insert an explicit line break/br element. For example, set brspaces to 2 to allow exactly 2 spaces at the end of a line.

Note: you have to set brspaces to 2 or higher for this exception to take effect - you can't insert a br element with just a single trailing space, so if you set brspaces to 1, the exception will be disabled, just as if it was set to the default of 0.

MD025 - Multiple top level headers in the same document

Tags: headers

Aliases: single-h1

Parameters: level (number; default 1)

This rule is triggered when a top level header is in use (the first line of the file is a h1 header), and more than one h1 header is in use in the document:

# Top level header

# Another top level header

To fix, structure your document so that there is a single h1 header that is the title for the document, and all later headers are h2 or lower level headers:

# Title

## Header

## Another header

Rationale: A top level header is a h1 on the first line of the file, and serves as the title for the document. If this convention is in use, then there can not be more than one title for the document, and the entire document should be contained within this header.

Note: The level parameter can be used to change the top level (ex: to h2) in cases where an h1 is added externally.

MD028 - Blank line inside blockquote

Tags: blockquote, whitespace

Aliases: no-blanks-blockquote

This rule is triggered when two blockquote blocks are separated by nothing except for a blank line:

> This is a blockquote
> which is immediately followed by

> this blockquote. Unfortunately
> In some parsers, these are treated as the same blockquote.

To fix this, ensure that any blockquotes that are right next to each other have some text in between:

> This is a blockquote.

And Jimmy also said:

> This too is a blockquote.

Alternatively, if they are supposed to be the same quote, then add the blockquote symbol at the beginning of the blank line:

> This is a blockquote.
>
> This is the same blockquote.

Rationale: Some markdown parsers will treat two blockquotes separated by one or more blank lines as the same blockquote, while others will treat them as separate blockquotes.

MD031 - Fenced code blocks should be surrounded by blank lines

Tags: code, blank_lines

Aliases: blanks-around-fences

This rule is triggered when fenced code blocks are either not preceded or not followed by a blank line:

Some text
```
Code block
```

```
Another code block
```
Some more text

To fix this, ensure that all fenced code blocks have a blank line both before and after (except where the block is at the beginning or end of the document):

Some text

```
Code block
```

```
Another code block
```

Some more text

Rationale: Aside from aesthetic reasons, some parsers, including kramdown, will not parse fenced code blocks that don't have blank lines before and after them.

MD032 - Lists should be surrounded by blank lines

Tags: bullet, ul, ol, blank_lines

Aliases: blanks-around-lists

This rule is triggered when lists (of any kind) are either not preceded or not followed by a blank line:

Some text
* Some
* List

1. Some
2. List
Some text

To fix this, ensure that all lists have a blank line both before and after (except where the block is at the beginning or end of the document):

Some text

* Some
* List

1. Some
2. List

Some text

Rationale: Aside from aesthetic reasons, some parsers, including kramdown, will not parse lists that don't have blank lines before and after them.

Note: List items without hanging indents are a violation of this rule; list items with hanging indents are okay:

* This is
not okay

* This is
  okay

MD012 - Multiple consecutive blank lines

Tags: whitespace, blank_lines

Aliases: no-multiple-blanks

This rule is triggered when there are multiple consecutive blank lines in the document:

Some text here


Some more text here

To fix this, delete the offending lines:

Some text here

Some more text here

Note: this rule will not be triggered if there are multiple consecutive blank lines inside code blocks.

MD012 - Multiple consecutive blank lines

Tags: whitespace, blank_lines

Aliases: no-multiple-blanks

This rule is triggered when there are multiple consecutive blank lines in the document:

Some text here


Some more text here

To fix this, delete the offending lines:

Some text here

Some more text here

Note: this rule will not be triggered if there are multiple consecutive blank lines inside code blocks.

MD009 - Trailing spaces

Tags: whitespace

Aliases: no-trailing-spaces

Parameters: br_spaces (number; default: 0)

This rule is triggered on any lines that end with whitespace. To fix this, find the line that is triggered and remove any trailing spaces from the end.

The brspaces parameter allows an exception to this rule for a specific amount of trailing spaces used to insert an explicit line break/br element. For example, set brspaces to 2 to allow exactly 2 spaces at the end of a line.

Note: you have to set brspaces to 2 or higher for this exception to take effect - you can't insert a br element with just a single trailing space, so if you set brspaces to 1, the exception will be disabled, just as if it was set to the default of 0.

MD009 - Trailing spaces

Tags: whitespace

Aliases: no-trailing-spaces

Parameters: br_spaces (number; default: 0)

This rule is triggered on any lines that end with whitespace. To fix this, find the line that is triggered and remove any trailing spaces from the end.

The brspaces parameter allows an exception to this rule for a specific amount of trailing spaces used to insert an explicit line break/br element. For example, set brspaces to 2 to allow exactly 2 spaces at the end of a line.

Note: you have to set brspaces to 2 or higher for this exception to take effect - you can't insert a br element with just a single trailing space, so if you set brspaces to 1, the exception will be disabled, just as if it was set to the default of 0.

MD009 - Trailing spaces

Tags: whitespace

Aliases: no-trailing-spaces

Parameters: br_spaces (number; default: 0)

This rule is triggered on any lines that end with whitespace. To fix this, find the line that is triggered and remove any trailing spaces from the end.

The brspaces parameter allows an exception to this rule for a specific amount of trailing spaces used to insert an explicit line break/br element. For example, set brspaces to 2 to allow exactly 2 spaces at the end of a line.

Note: you have to set brspaces to 2 or higher for this exception to take effect - you can't insert a br element with just a single trailing space, so if you set brspaces to 1, the exception will be disabled, just as if it was set to the default of 0.

MD010 - Hard tabs

Tags: whitespace, hard_tab

Aliases: no-hard-tabs

This rule is triggered by any lines that contain hard tab characters instead of using spaces for indentation. To fix this, replace any hard tab characters with spaces instead.

Example:

Some text

    * hard tab character used to indent the list item

Corrected example:

Some text

    * Spaces used to indent the list item instead

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.

MD012 - Multiple consecutive blank lines

Tags: whitespace, blank_lines

Aliases: no-multiple-blanks

This rule is triggered when there are multiple consecutive blank lines in the document:

Some text here


Some more text here

To fix this, delete the offending lines:

Some text here

Some more text here

Note: this rule will not be triggered if there are multiple consecutive blank lines inside code blocks.