cosmocode/dokuwiki-plugin-issuelinks

Duplicated string literals make the process of refactoring error-prone, since you must be sure to update all occurrences.

On the other hand, constants can be referenced from many places, but only need to be updated in a single place.

Noncompliant Code Example

With the default threshold of 3:

function run() {
  prepare('action1');                              // Non-Compliant - 'action1' is duplicated 3 times
  execute('action1');
  release('action1');
}

Compliant Solution

ACTION_1 = 'action1';

function run() {
  prepare(ACTION_1);
  execute(ACTION_1);
  release(ACTION_1);
}

Exceptions

To prevent generating some false-positives, literals having less than 5 characters are excluded.

FIXME tags are commonly used to mark places where a bug is suspected, but which the developer wants to deal with later.

Sometimes the developer will not have the time or will simply forget to get back to that tag.

This rule is meant to track those tags and to ensure that they do not go unnoticed.

Noncompliant Code Example

function divide($numerator, $denominator) {
  return $numerator / $denominator;              // FIXME denominator value might be  0
}

See

• MITRE, CWE-546 - Suspicious Comment

Having too many return statements in a function increases the function's essential complexity because the flow of execution is broken each time a return statement is encountered. This makes it harder to read and understand the logic of the function.

Noncompliant Code Example

With the default threshold of 3:

function myFunction(){ // Noncompliant as there are 4 return statements
  if (condition1) {
    return true;
  } else {
    if (condition2) {
      return false;
    } else {
      return true;
    }
  }
  return false;
}