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

Each comma, semicolon or colon should be followed by whitespace.

Okay: [a, b]
Okay: (3,)
Okay: a[1:4]
Okay: a[:4]
Okay: a[1:]
Okay: a[1:4:2]
E231: ['a','b']
E231: foo(bar,baz)
E231: [{'a':'b'}]

Each comma, semicolon or colon should be followed by whitespace.

Okay: [a, b]
Okay: (3,)
Okay: a[1:4]
Okay: a[:4]
Okay: a[1:]
Okay: a[1:4:2]
E231: ['a','b']
E231: foo(bar,baz)
E231: [{'a':'b'}]

Comparison to singletons should use "is" or "is not".

Comparisons to singletons like None should always be done
with "is" or "is not", never the equality operators.

Okay: if arg is not None:
E711: if arg != None:
E711: if None == arg:
E712: if arg == True:
E712: if False == arg:

Also, beware of writing if x when you really mean if x is not None
-- e.g. when testing whether a variable or argument that defaults to
None was set to some other value.  The other value might have a type
(such as a container) that could be false in a boolean context!

Comparison to singletons should use "is" or "is not".

Comparisons to singletons like None should always be done
with "is" or "is not", never the equality operators.

Okay: if arg is not None:
E711: if arg != None:
E711: if None == arg:
E712: if arg == True:
E712: if False == arg:

Also, beware of writing if x when you really mean if x is not None
-- e.g. when testing whether a variable or argument that defaults to
None was set to some other value.  The other value might have a type
(such as a container) that could be false in a boolean context!

Limit all lines to a maximum of 79 characters.

There are still many devices around that are limited to 80 character
lines; plus, limiting windows to 80 characters makes it possible to
have several windows side-by-side.  The default wrapping on such
devices looks ugly.  Therefore, please limit all lines to a maximum
of 79 characters. For flowing long blocks of text (docstrings or
comments), limiting the length to 72 characters is recommended.

Reports error E501.

Continuation lines indentation.

Continuation lines should align wrapped elements either vertically
using Python's implicit line joining inside parentheses, brackets
and braces, or using a hanging indent.

When using a hanging indent these considerations should be applied:
- there should be no arguments on the first line, and
- further indentation should be used to clearly distinguish itself
  as a continuation line.

Okay: a = (\n)
E123: a = (\n    )

Okay: a = (\n    42)
E121: a = (\n   42)
E122: a = (\n42)
E123: a = (\n    42\n    )
E124: a = (24,\n     42\n)
E125: if (\n    b):\n    pass
E126: a = (\n        42)
E127: a = (24,\n      42)
E128: a = (24,\n    42)
E129: if (a or\n    b):\n    pass
E131: a = (\n    42\n 24)

Separate top-level function and class definitions with two blank lines.

Method definitions inside a class are separated by a single blank
line.

Extra blank lines may be used (sparingly) to separate groups of
related functions.  Blank lines may be omitted between a bunch of
related one-liners (e.g. a set of dummy implementations).

Use blank lines in functions, sparingly, to indicate logical
sections.

Okay: def a():\n    pass\n\n\ndef b():\n    pass
Okay: def a():\n    pass\n\n\nasync def b():\n    pass
Okay: def a():\n    pass\n\n\n# Foo\n# Bar\n\ndef b():\n    pass
Okay: default = 1\nfoo = 1
Okay: classify = 1\nfoo = 1

E301: class Foo:\n    b = 0\n    def bar():\n        pass
E302: def a():\n    pass\n\ndef b(n):\n    pass
E302: def a():\n    pass\n\nasync def b(n):\n    pass
E303: def a():\n    pass\n\n\n\ndef b(n):\n    pass
E303: def a():\n\n\n\n    pass
E304: @decorator\n\ndef a():\n    pass
E305: def a():\n    pass\na()
E306: def a():\n    def b():\n        pass\n    def c():\n        pass

Limit all lines to a maximum of 79 characters.

There are still many devices around that are limited to 80 character
lines; plus, limiting windows to 80 characters makes it possible to
have several windows side-by-side.  The default wrapping on such
devices looks ugly.  Therefore, please limit all lines to a maximum
of 79 characters. For flowing long blocks of text (docstrings or
comments), limiting the length to 72 characters is recommended.

Reports error E501.

Avoid extraneous whitespace around keywords.

Okay: True and False
E271: True and  False
E272: True  and False
E273: True and\tFalse
E274: True\tand False