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 checks if the length of a block exceeds some maximum value. Comment lines can optionally be ignored. The maximum allowed length is configurable. The cop can be configured to ignore blocks passed to certain methods.

This cop checks for rescuing StandardError. There are two supported styles implicit and explicit. This cop will not register an offense if any error other than StandardError is specified.

Example: EnforcedStyle: implicit

# `implicit` will enforce using `rescue` instead of
# `rescue StandardError`.

# bad
begin
  foo
rescue StandardError
  bar
end

# good
begin
  foo
rescue
  bar
end

# good
begin
  foo
rescue OtherError
  bar
end

# good
begin
  foo
rescue StandardError, SecurityError
  bar
end

Example: EnforcedStyle: explicit (default)

# `explicit` will enforce using `rescue StandardError`
# instead of `rescue`.

# bad
begin
  foo
rescue
  bar
end

# good
begin
  foo
rescue StandardError
  bar
end

# good
begin
  foo
rescue OtherError
  bar
end

# good
begin
  foo
rescue StandardError, SecurityError
  bar
end

This cop enforces the use of either #alias or #alias_method depending on configuration. It also flags uses of alias :symbol rather than alias bareword.

Example: EnforcedStyle: prefer_alias (default)

# bad
alias_method :bar, :foo
alias :bar :foo

# good
alias bar foo

Example: EnforcedStyle: preferaliasmethod

# bad
alias :bar :foo
alias bar foo

# good
alias_method :bar, :foo

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

Example:

# bad
CONST = [1, 2, 3]

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

This cop enforces the use of either #alias or #alias_method depending on configuration. It also flags uses of alias :symbol rather than alias bareword.

Example: EnforcedStyle: prefer_alias (default)

# bad
alias_method :bar, :foo
alias :bar :foo

# good
alias bar foo

Example: EnforcedStyle: preferaliasmethod

# bad
alias :bar :foo
alias bar foo

# good
alias_method :bar, :foo

Checks for a newline after the final magic comment.

Example:

# good
# frozen_string_literal: true

# Some documentation for Person
class Person
  # Some code
end

# bad
# frozen_string_literal: true
# Some documentation for Person
class Person
  # Some code
end

This cop checks for case statements with an empty condition.

Example:

# bad:
case
when x == 0
  puts 'x is 0'
when y == 0
  puts 'y is 0'
else
  puts 'neither is 0'
end

# good:
if x == 0
  puts 'x is 0'
elsif y == 0
  puts 'y is 0'
else
  puts 'neither is 0'
end

# good: (the case condition node is not empty)
case n
when 0
  puts 'zero'
when 1
  puts 'one'
else
  puts 'more'
end

This cop checks for uses of fail and raise.

Example: EnforcedStyle: only_raise (default)

# The `only_raise` style enforces the sole use of `raise`.
# bad
begin
  fail
rescue Exception
  # handle it
end

def watch_out
  fail
rescue Exception
  # handle it
end

Kernel.fail

# good
begin
  raise
rescue Exception
  # handle it
end

def watch_out
  raise
rescue Exception
  # handle it
end

Kernel.raise

Example: EnforcedStyle: only_fail

# The `only_fail` style enforces the sole use of `fail`.
# bad
begin
  raise
rescue Exception
  # handle it
end

def watch_out
  raise
rescue Exception
  # handle it
end

Kernel.raise

# good
begin
  fail
rescue Exception
  # handle it
end

def watch_out
  fail
rescue Exception
  # handle it
end

Kernel.fail

Example: EnforcedStyle: semantic

# The `semantic` style enforces the use of `fail` to signal an
# exception, then will use `raise` to trigger an offense after
# it has been rescued.
# bad
begin
  raise
rescue Exception
  # handle it
end

def watch_out
  # Error thrown
rescue Exception
  fail
end

Kernel.fail
Kernel.raise

# good
begin
  fail
rescue Exception
  # handle it
end

def watch_out
  fail
rescue Exception
  raise 'Preferably with descriptive message'
end

explicit_receiver.fail
explicit_receiver.raise

This cop checks for uses of fail and raise.

Example: EnforcedStyle: only_raise (default)

# The `only_raise` style enforces the sole use of `raise`.
# bad
begin
  fail
rescue Exception
  # handle it
end

def watch_out
  fail
rescue Exception
  # handle it
end

Kernel.fail

# good
begin
  raise
rescue Exception
  # handle it
end

def watch_out
  raise
rescue Exception
  # handle it
end

Kernel.raise

Example: EnforcedStyle: only_fail

# The `only_fail` style enforces the sole use of `fail`.
# bad
begin
  raise
rescue Exception
  # handle it
end

def watch_out
  raise
rescue Exception
  # handle it
end

Kernel.raise

# good
begin
  fail
rescue Exception
  # handle it
end

def watch_out
  fail
rescue Exception
  # handle it
end

Kernel.fail

Example: EnforcedStyle: semantic

# The `semantic` style enforces the use of `fail` to signal an
# exception, then will use `raise` to trigger an offense after
# it has been rescued.
# bad
begin
  raise
rescue Exception
  # handle it
end

def watch_out
  # Error thrown
rescue Exception
  fail
end

Kernel.fail
Kernel.raise

# good
begin
  fail
rescue Exception
  # handle it
end

def watch_out
  fail
rescue Exception
  raise 'Preferably with descriptive message'
end

explicit_receiver.fail
explicit_receiver.raise

This cop can check for array literals made up of symbols that are not using the %i() syntax.

Alternatively, it checks for symbol arrays using the %i() syntax on projects which do not want to use that syntax.

Configuration option: MinSize If set, arrays with fewer elements than this value will not trigger the cop. For example, a MinSize of3` will not enforce a style on an array of 2 or fewer elements.

Example: EnforcedStyle: percent (default)

# good
%i[foo bar baz]

# bad
[:foo, :bar, :baz]

Example: EnforcedStyle: brackets

# good
[:foo, :bar, :baz]

# bad
%i[foo bar baz]

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

Example:

# bad
CONST = [1, 2, 3]

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