A method with Too Many Statements is any method that has a large number of lines.

Too Many Statements warns about any method that has more than 5 statements. Reek's smell detector for Too Many Statements counts +1 for every simple statement in a method and +1 for every statement within a control structure (if, else, case, when, for, while, until, begin, rescue) but it doesn't count the control structure itself.

So the following method would score +6 in Reek's statement-counting algorithm:

def parse(arg, argv, &error)
  if !(val = arg) and (argv.empty? or /\A-/ =~ (val = argv[0]))
    return nil, block, nil                                         # +1
  end
  opt = (val = parse_arg(val, &error))[1]                          # +2
  val = conv_arg(*val)                                             # +3
  if opt and !arg
    argv.shift                                                     # +4
  else
    val[0] = nil                                                   # +5
  end
  val                                                              # +6
end

(You might argue that the two assigments within the first @if@ should count as statements, and that perhaps the nested assignment should count as +2.)

Classes and modules are the units of reuse and release. It is therefore considered good practice to annotate every class and module with a brief comment outlining its responsibilities.

Example

Given

class Dummy
  # Do things...
end

Reek would emit the following warning:

test.rb -- 1 warning:
  [1]:Dummy has no descriptive comment (IrresponsibleModule)

Fixing this is simple - just an explaining comment:

# The Dummy class is responsible for ...
class Dummy
  # Do things...
end

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

This cop makes sure that rescued exceptions variables are named as expected.

The PreferredName config option takes a String. It represents the required name of the variable. Its default is e.

Example: PreferredName: e (default)

# bad
begin
  # do something
rescue MyException => exception
  # do something
end

# good
begin
  # do something
rescue MyException => e
  # do something
end

# good
begin
  # do something
rescue MyException => _e
  # do something
end

Example: PreferredName: exception

# bad
begin
  # do something
rescue MyException => e
  # do something
end

# good
begin
  # do something
rescue MyException => exception
  # do something
end

# good
begin
  # do something
rescue MyException => _exception
  # do something
end

This cop makes sure that rescued exceptions variables are named as expected.

The PreferredName config option takes a String. It represents the required name of the variable. Its default is e.

Example: PreferredName: e (default)

# bad
begin
  # do something
rescue MyException => exception
  # do something
end

# good
begin
  # do something
rescue MyException => e
  # do something
end

# good
begin
  # do something
rescue MyException => _e
  # do something
end

Example: PreferredName: exception

# bad
begin
  # do something
rescue MyException => e
  # do something
end

# good
begin
  # do something
rescue MyException => exception
  # do something
end

# good
begin
  # do something
rescue MyException => _exception
  # do something
end

This cop checks whether some constant value isn't a mutable literal (e.g. array or hash).

Strict mode can be used to freeze all constants, rather than just literals. Strict mode is considered an experimental feature. It has not been updated with an exhaustive list of all methods that will produce frozen objects so there is a decent chance of getting some false positives. Luckily, there is no harm in freezing an already frozen object.

Example: EnforcedStyle: literals (default)

# bad
CONST = [1, 2, 3]

# good
CONST = [1, 2, 3].freeze

# good
CONST = <<~TESTING.freeze
  This is a heredoc
TESTING

# good
CONST = Something.new

Example: EnforcedStyle: strict

# bad
CONST = Something.new

# bad
CONST = Struct.new do
  def foo
    puts 1
  end
end

# good
CONST = Something.new.freeze

# good
CONST = Struct.new do
  def foo
    puts 1
  end
end.freeze