Refactor this method to reduce its Cognitive Complexity from 33 to the 15 allowed. Open
public Location getLocation() {
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Cognitive Complexity is a measure of how hard the control flow of a method is to understand. Methods with high Cognitive Complexity will be difficult to maintain.
See
A "NullPointerException" could be thrown; "locationManager" is nullable here. Open
locationManager.requestLocationUpdates(
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- Exclude checks
A reference to null
should never be dereferenced/accessed. Doing so will cause a NullPointerException
to be thrown. At
best, such an exception will cause abrupt program termination. At worst, it could expose debugging information that would be useful to an attacker, or
it could allow an attacker to bypass security measures.
Note that when they are present, this rule takes advantage of @CheckForNull
and @Nonnull
annotations defined in JSR-305 to understand which values are and are not nullable except when @Nonnull
is used
on the parameter to equals
, which by contract should always work with null.
Noncompliant Code Example
@CheckForNull String getName(){...} public boolean isNameEmpty() { return getName().length() == 0; // Noncompliant; the result of getName() could be null, but isn't null-checked }
Connection conn = null; Statement stmt = null; try{ conn = DriverManager.getConnection(DB_URL,USER,PASS); stmt = conn.createStatement(); // ... }catch(Exception e){ e.printStackTrace(); }finally{ stmt.close(); // Noncompliant; stmt could be null if an exception was thrown in the try{} block conn.close(); // Noncompliant; conn could be null if an exception was thrown }
private void merge(@Nonnull Color firstColor, @Nonnull Color secondColor){...} public void append(@CheckForNull Color color) { merge(currentColor, color); // Noncompliant; color should be null-checked because merge(...) doesn't accept nullable parameters }
void paint(Color color) { if(color == null) { System.out.println("Unable to apply color " + color.toString()); // Noncompliant; NullPointerException will be thrown return; } ... }
See
- MITRE, CWE-476 - NULL Pointer Dereference
- CERT, EXP34-C. - Do not dereference null pointers
- CERT, EXP01-J. - Do not use a null in a case where an object is required
Add a nested comment explaining why this method is empty, throw an UnsupportedOperationException or complete the implementation. Open
public void onLocationChanged(Location location) {
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- Exclude checks
There are several reasons for a method not to have a method body:
- It is an unintentional omission, and should be fixed to prevent an unexpected behavior in production.
- It is not yet, or never will be, supported. In this case an
UnsupportedOperationException
should be thrown. - The method is an intentionally-blank override. In this case a nested comment should explain the reason for the blank override.
Noncompliant Code Example
public void doSomething() { } public void doSomethingElse() { }
Compliant Solution
@Override public void doSomething() { // Do nothing because of X and Y. } @Override public void doSomethingElse() { throw new UnsupportedOperationException(); }
Exceptions
Default (no-argument) constructors are ignored when there are other constructors in the class, as are empty methods in abstract classes.
public abstract class Animal { void speak() { // default implementation ignored } }
Add a nested comment explaining why this method is empty, throw an UnsupportedOperationException or complete the implementation. Open
public void onProviderEnabled(String provider) {
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- Exclude checks
There are several reasons for a method not to have a method body:
- It is an unintentional omission, and should be fixed to prevent an unexpected behavior in production.
- It is not yet, or never will be, supported. In this case an
UnsupportedOperationException
should be thrown. - The method is an intentionally-blank override. In this case a nested comment should explain the reason for the blank override.
Noncompliant Code Example
public void doSomething() { } public void doSomethingElse() { }
Compliant Solution
@Override public void doSomething() { // Do nothing because of X and Y. } @Override public void doSomethingElse() { throw new UnsupportedOperationException(); }
Exceptions
Default (no-argument) constructors are ignored when there are other constructors in the class, as are empty methods in abstract classes.
public abstract class Animal { void speak() { // default implementation ignored } }
Add a nested comment explaining why this method is empty, throw an UnsupportedOperationException or complete the implementation. Open
public void onProviderDisabled(String provider) {
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- Exclude checks
There are several reasons for a method not to have a method body:
- It is an unintentional omission, and should be fixed to prevent an unexpected behavior in production.
- It is not yet, or never will be, supported. In this case an
UnsupportedOperationException
should be thrown. - The method is an intentionally-blank override. In this case a nested comment should explain the reason for the blank override.
Noncompliant Code Example
public void doSomething() { } public void doSomethingElse() { }
Compliant Solution
@Override public void doSomething() { // Do nothing because of X and Y. } @Override public void doSomethingElse() { throw new UnsupportedOperationException(); }
Exceptions
Default (no-argument) constructors are ignored when there are other constructors in the class, as are empty methods in abstract classes.
public abstract class Animal { void speak() { // default implementation ignored } }
A "NullPointerException" could be thrown; "locationManager" is nullable here. Open
isGPSEnabled = locationManager.isProviderEnabled(LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER);
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- Exclude checks
A reference to null
should never be dereferenced/accessed. Doing so will cause a NullPointerException
to be thrown. At
best, such an exception will cause abrupt program termination. At worst, it could expose debugging information that would be useful to an attacker, or
it could allow an attacker to bypass security measures.
Note that when they are present, this rule takes advantage of @CheckForNull
and @Nonnull
annotations defined in JSR-305 to understand which values are and are not nullable except when @Nonnull
is used
on the parameter to equals
, which by contract should always work with null.
Noncompliant Code Example
@CheckForNull String getName(){...} public boolean isNameEmpty() { return getName().length() == 0; // Noncompliant; the result of getName() could be null, but isn't null-checked }
Connection conn = null; Statement stmt = null; try{ conn = DriverManager.getConnection(DB_URL,USER,PASS); stmt = conn.createStatement(); // ... }catch(Exception e){ e.printStackTrace(); }finally{ stmt.close(); // Noncompliant; stmt could be null if an exception was thrown in the try{} block conn.close(); // Noncompliant; conn could be null if an exception was thrown }
private void merge(@Nonnull Color firstColor, @Nonnull Color secondColor){...} public void append(@CheckForNull Color color) { merge(currentColor, color); // Noncompliant; color should be null-checked because merge(...) doesn't accept nullable parameters }
void paint(Color color) { if(color == null) { System.out.println("Unable to apply color " + color.toString()); // Noncompliant; NullPointerException will be thrown return; } ... }
See
- MITRE, CWE-476 - NULL Pointer Dereference
- CERT, EXP34-C. - Do not dereference null pointers
- CERT, EXP01-J. - Do not use a null in a case where an object is required
Add a nested comment explaining why this method is empty, throw an UnsupportedOperationException or complete the implementation. Open
public void onStatusChanged(String provider, int status, Bundle extras) {
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- Exclude checks
There are several reasons for a method not to have a method body:
- It is an unintentional omission, and should be fixed to prevent an unexpected behavior in production.
- It is not yet, or never will be, supported. In this case an
UnsupportedOperationException
should be thrown. - The method is an intentionally-blank override. In this case a nested comment should explain the reason for the blank override.
Noncompliant Code Example
public void doSomething() { } public void doSomethingElse() { }
Compliant Solution
@Override public void doSomething() { // Do nothing because of X and Y. } @Override public void doSomethingElse() { throw new UnsupportedOperationException(); }
Exceptions
Default (no-argument) constructors are ignored when there are other constructors in the class, as are empty methods in abstract classes.
public abstract class Animal { void speak() { // default implementation ignored } }