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

Calls to validates_format_of ..., :with => // which do not use \A and \z as anchors will cause this warning. Using ^ and $ is not sufficient, as they will only match up to a new line. This allows an attacker to put whatever malicious input they would like before or after a new line character.

See the Ruby Security Guide for details.

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

Duplicated Code

Duplicated code can lead to software that is hard to understand and difficult to change. The Don't Repeat Yourself (DRY) principle states:

Every piece of knowledge must have a single, unambiguous, authoritative representation within a system.

When you violate DRY, bugs and maintenance problems are sure to follow. Duplicated code has a tendency to both continue to replicate and also to diverge (leaving bugs as two similar implementations differ in subtle ways).

Tuning

This issue has a mass of 27.

We set useful threshold defaults for the languages we support but you may want to adjust these settings based on your project guidelines.

The threshold configuration represents the minimum mass a code block must have to be analyzed for duplication. The lower the threshold, the more fine-grained the comparison.

If the engine is too easily reporting duplication, try raising the threshold. If you suspect that the engine isn't catching enough duplication, try lowering the threshold. The best setting tends to differ from language to language.

See codeclimate-duplication's documentation for more information about tuning the mass threshold in your .codeclimate.yml.

Refactorings

• Extract Method
• Extract Class
• Form Template Method
• Introduce Null Object
• Pull Up Method
• Pull Up Field
• Substitute Algorithm

Further Reading

• Don't Repeat Yourself on the C2 Wiki
• Duplicated Code on SourceMaking
• Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowler. Duplicated Code, p76

Duplicated Code

Duplicated code can lead to software that is hard to understand and difficult to change. The Don't Repeat Yourself (DRY) principle states:

Every piece of knowledge must have a single, unambiguous, authoritative representation within a system.

When you violate DRY, bugs and maintenance problems are sure to follow. Duplicated code has a tendency to both continue to replicate and also to diverge (leaving bugs as two similar implementations differ in subtle ways).

Tuning

This issue has a mass of 27.

We set useful threshold defaults for the languages we support but you may want to adjust these settings based on your project guidelines.

The threshold configuration represents the minimum mass a code block must have to be analyzed for duplication. The lower the threshold, the more fine-grained the comparison.

If the engine is too easily reporting duplication, try raising the threshold. If you suspect that the engine isn't catching enough duplication, try lowering the threshold. The best setting tends to differ from language to language.

See codeclimate-duplication's documentation for more information about tuning the mass threshold in your .codeclimate.yml.

Refactorings

• Extract Method
• Extract Class
• Form Template Method
• Introduce Null Object
• Pull Up Method
• Pull Up Field
• Substitute Algorithm

Further Reading

• Don't Repeat Yourself on the C2 Wiki
• Duplicated Code on SourceMaking
• Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowler. Duplicated Code, p76

This cop checks for use of extend self or module_function in a module.

Supported styles are: modulefunction, extendself.

Example: EnforcedStyle: module_function (default)

# bad
module Test
  extend self
  # ...
end

# good
module Test
  module_function
  # ...
end

In case there are private methods, the cop won't be activated. Otherwise, it forces to change the flow of the default code.

Example: EnforcedStyle: module_function (default)

# good
module Test
  extend self
  # ...
  private
  # ...
end

Example: EnforcedStyle: extend_self

# bad
module Test
  module_function
  # ...
end

# good
module Test
  extend self
  # ...
end

These offenses are not safe to auto-correct since there are different implications to each approach.

This cop checks that methods specified in the filter's only or except options are defined within the same class or module.

You can technically specify methods of superclass or methods added by mixins on the filter, but these can confuse developers. If you specify methods that are defined in other classes or modules, you should define the filter in that class or module.

If you rely on behaviour defined in the superclass actions, you must remember to invoke super in the subclass actions.

Example:

# bad
class LoginController < ApplicationController
  before_action :require_login, only: %i[index settings logout]

  def index
  end
end

# good
class LoginController < ApplicationController
  before_action :require_login, only: %i[index settings logout]

  def index
  end

  def settings
  end

  def logout
  end
end

Example:

# bad
module FooMixin
  extend ActiveSupport::Concern

  included do
    before_action proc { authenticate }, only: :foo
  end
end

# good
module FooMixin
  extend ActiveSupport::Concern

  included do
    before_action proc { authenticate }, only: :foo
  end

  def foo
    # something
  end
end

Example:

class ContentController < ApplicationController
  def update
    @content.update(content_attributes)
  end
end

class ArticlesController < ContentController
  before_action :load_article, only: [:update]

  # the cop requires this method, but it relies on behaviour defined
  # in the superclass, so needs to invoke `super`
  def update
    super
  end

  private

  def load_article
    @content = Article.find(params[:article_id])
  end
end

This cop looks for has_many or has_one associations that don't specify a :dependent option. It doesn't register an offense if :through option was specified.

Example:

# bad
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :comments
  has_one :avatar
end

# good
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :comments, dependent: :restrict_with_exception
  has_one :avatar, dependent: :destroy
  has_many :patients, through: :appointments
end

This cop makes sure that accessor methods are named properly.

Example:

# bad
def set_attribute(value)
end

# good
def attribute=(value)
end

# bad
def get_attribute
end

# good
def attribute
end

This cop checks the style of children definitions at classes and modules. Basically there are two different styles:

Example: EnforcedStyle: nested (default)

# good
# have each child on its own line
class Foo
  class Bar
  end
end

Example: EnforcedStyle: compact

# good
# combine definitions as much as possible
class Foo::Bar
end

The compact style is only forced for classes/modules with one child.

This cop checks that the ABC size of methods is not higher than the configured maximum. The ABC size is based on assignments, branches (method calls), and conditions. See http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?AbcMetric and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_Software_Metric.

This cop makes sure that accessor methods are named properly.

Example:

# bad
def set_attribute(value)
end

# good
def attribute=(value)
end

# bad
def get_attribute
end

# good
def attribute
end