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

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

Dependencies in the gemspec should be alphabetically sorted.

Example:

# bad
spec.add_dependency 'rubocop'
spec.add_dependency 'rspec'

# good
spec.add_dependency 'rspec'
spec.add_dependency 'rubocop'

# good
spec.add_dependency 'rubocop'

spec.add_dependency 'rspec'

# bad
spec.add_development_dependency 'rubocop'
spec.add_development_dependency 'rspec'

# good
spec.add_development_dependency 'rspec'
spec.add_development_dependency 'rubocop'

# good
spec.add_development_dependency 'rubocop'

spec.add_development_dependency 'rspec'

# bad
spec.add_runtime_dependency 'rubocop'
spec.add_runtime_dependency 'rspec'

# good
spec.add_runtime_dependency 'rspec'
spec.add_runtime_dependency 'rubocop'

# good
spec.add_runtime_dependency 'rubocop'

spec.add_runtime_dependency 'rspec'

# good only if TreatCommentsAsGroupSeparators is true
# For code quality
spec.add_dependency 'rubocop'
# For tests
spec.add_dependency 'rspec'

This cop is designed to help upgrade to Ruby 3.0. It will add the comment # frozen_string_literal: true to the top of files to enable frozen string literals. Frozen string literals may be default in Ruby 3.0. The comment will be added below a shebang and encoding comment. The frozen string literal comment is only valid in Ruby 2.3+.

Example: EnforcedStyle: when_needed (default)

# The `when_needed` style will add the frozen string literal comment
# to files only when the `TargetRubyVersion` is set to 2.3+.
# bad
module Foo
  # ...
end

# good
# frozen_string_literal: true

module Foo
  # ...
end

Example: EnforcedStyle: always

# The `always` style will always add the frozen string literal comment
# to a file, regardless of the Ruby version or if `freeze` or `<<` are
# called on a string literal.
# bad
module Bar
  # ...
end

# good
# frozen_string_literal: true

module Bar
  # ...
end

Example: EnforcedStyle: never

# The `never` will enforce that the frozen string literal comment does
# not exist in a file.
# bad
# frozen_string_literal: true

module Baz
  # ...
end

# good
module Baz
  # ...
end

This cop checks for redundant return expressions.

Example:

def test
  return something
end

def test
  one
  two
  three
  return something
end

It should be extended to handle methods whose body is if/else or a case expression with a default branch.

Use a guard clause instead of wrapping the code inside a conditional expression

Example:

# bad
def test
  if something
    work
  end
end

# good
def test
  return unless something
  work
end

# also good
def test
  work if something
end

# bad
if something
  raise 'exception'
else
  ok
end

# good
raise 'exception' if something
ok

This cop checks for redundant return expressions.

Example:

def test
  return something
end

def test
  one
  two
  three
  return something
end

It should be extended to handle methods whose body is if/else or a case expression with a default branch.

Checks for empty else-clauses, possibly including comments and/or an explicit nil depending on the EnforcedStyle.

Example: EnforcedStyle: empty

# warn only on empty else

# bad
if condition
  statement
else
end

# good
if condition
  statement
else
  nil
end

# good
if condition
  statement
else
  statement
end

# good
if condition
  statement
end

Example: EnforcedStyle: nil

# warn on else with nil in it

# bad
if condition
  statement
else
  nil
end

# good
if condition
  statement
else
end

# good
if condition
  statement
else
  statement
end

# good
if condition
  statement
end

Example: EnforcedStyle: both (default)

# warn on empty else and else with nil in it

# bad
if condition
  statement
else
  nil
end

# bad
if condition
  statement
else
end

# good
if condition
  statement
else
  statement
end

# good
if condition
  statement
end

This cop (by default) checks for uses of methods Hash#haskey? and Hash#hasvalue? where it enforces Hash#key? and Hash#value? It is configurable to enforce the inverse, using verbose method names also.

Example: EnforcedStyle: short (default)

# bad Hash#haskey? Hash#hasvalue?

# good Hash#key? Hash#value?

Example: EnforcedStyle: verbose

# bad Hash#key? Hash#value?

# good Hash#haskey? Hash#hasvalue?

This cop is designed to help upgrade to Ruby 3.0. It will add the comment # frozen_string_literal: true to the top of files to enable frozen string literals. Frozen string literals may be default in Ruby 3.0. The comment will be added below a shebang and encoding comment. The frozen string literal comment is only valid in Ruby 2.3+.

Example: EnforcedStyle: when_needed (default)

# The `when_needed` style will add the frozen string literal comment
# to files only when the `TargetRubyVersion` is set to 2.3+.
# bad
module Foo
  # ...
end

# good
# frozen_string_literal: true

module Foo
  # ...
end

Example: EnforcedStyle: always

# The `always` style will always add the frozen string literal comment
# to a file, regardless of the Ruby version or if `freeze` or `<<` are
# called on a string literal.
# bad
module Bar
  # ...
end

# good
# frozen_string_literal: true

module Bar
  # ...
end

Example: EnforcedStyle: never

# The `never` will enforce that the frozen string literal comment does
# not exist in a file.
# bad
# frozen_string_literal: true

module Baz
  # ...
end

# good
module Baz
  # ...
end

This cop checks for missing top-level documentation of classes and modules. Classes with no body are exempt from the check and so are namespace modules - modules that have nothing in their bodies except classes, other modules, or constant definitions.

The documentation requirement is annulled if the class or module has a "#:nodoc:" comment next to it. Likewise, "#:nodoc: all" does the same for all its children.

Example:

# bad
class Person
  # ...
end

# good
# Description/Explanation of Person class
class Person
  # ...
end

Checks for uses of if with a negated condition. Only ifs without else are considered. There are three different styles:

- both
- prefix
- postfix

Example: EnforcedStyle: both (default)

# enforces `unless` for `prefix` and `postfix` conditionals

# bad

if !foo
  bar
end

# good

unless foo
  bar
end

# bad

bar if !foo

# good

bar unless foo

Example: EnforcedStyle: prefix

# enforces `unless` for just `prefix` conditionals

# bad

if !foo
  bar
end

# good

unless foo
  bar
end

# good

bar if !foo

Example: EnforcedStyle: postfix

# enforces `unless` for just `postfix` conditionals

# bad

bar if !foo

# good

bar unless foo

# good

if !foo
  bar
end

This cop (by default) checks for uses of methods Hash#haskey? and Hash#hasvalue? where it enforces Hash#key? and Hash#value? It is configurable to enforce the inverse, using verbose method names also.

Example: EnforcedStyle: short (default)

# bad Hash#haskey? Hash#hasvalue?

# good Hash#key? Hash#value?

Example: EnforcedStyle: verbose

# bad Hash#key? Hash#value?

# good Hash#haskey? Hash#hasvalue?

This cop checks for missing top-level documentation of classes and modules. Classes with no body are exempt from the check and so are namespace modules - modules that have nothing in their bodies except classes, other modules, or constant definitions.

The documentation requirement is annulled if the class or module has a "#:nodoc:" comment next to it. Likewise, "#:nodoc: all" does the same for all its children.

Example:

# bad
class Person
  # ...
end

# good
# Description/Explanation of Person class
class Person
  # ...
end

This cop checks for the use of Marshal class methods which have potential security issues leading to remote code execution when loading from an untrusted source.

Example:

# bad
Marshal.load("{}")
Marshal.restore("{}")

# good
Marshal.dump("{}")

# okish - deep copy hack
Marshal.load(Marshal.dump({}))

This cop can check for array literals made up of word-like strings, that are not using the %w() syntax.

Alternatively, it can check for uses of the %w() syntax, in projects which do not want to include that syntax.

Configuration option: MinSize If set, arrays with fewer elements than this value will not trigger the cop. For example, a MinSize of 3 will not enforce a style on an array of 2 or fewer elements.

Example: EnforcedStyle: percent (default)

# good
%w[foo bar baz]

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

Example: EnforcedStyle: brackets

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

# bad
%w[foo bar baz]