Understanding measures and metrics

This section describes the metrics used in the Sonar solution to evaluate your code.

Metrics are used to measure:

• Security, maintainability, and reliability attributes on the basis of statistics on the detected security, maintainability, and reliability issues, respectively.

• Test coverage on the basis of coverage statistics on executable lines and evaluated conditions.

• Code cyclomatic and cognitive complexities.

• Security review level on the basis of statistics on reviewed security hotspots.

Metrics also include statistics on:

• Duplicated lines and blocks.

• Code size (the number of various code elements).

• Issues.

Finally, metrics also include the quality gate status result.

A metric refers to either new code or overall code. Most metrics can be used to define the quality gate conditions.

You can find these metrics in the Measures tab of your projects and portfolios.

You can retrieve the metrics via the Web API by using the metric key.

Security

A list of security metrics used in the Sonar solution. See the Security-related rules page for more details.

Metric	Metric key	Definition
Vulnerabilities	vulnerabilities	The total number of security issues (also called vulnerabilities).
Vulnerabilities on new code	new_vulnerabilities	The total number of vulnerabilities raised for the first time on new code.
Security rating	security_rating	Rating related to security. The rating grid is as follows: A = 0 vulnerability B = at least one minor vulnerability C = at least one major vulnerability D = at least one critical vulnerability E = at least one blocker vulnerability
Security rating on new code	new_security_rating	Rating related to security on new code.
Security remediation effort	security_remediation_effort	The effort to fix all vulnerabilities. The remediation cost of an issue is taken over from the effort (in minutes) assigned to the rule that raised the issue (see Technical debt in the Maintainability section). An 8-hour day is assumed when values are shown in days.
Security remediation effort on new code	new_security_remediation_effort	The same as Security remediation effort but on new code.

Reliability

A list of Reliability metrics used in the Sonar solution.

Metric	Metric key	Definition
Bugs	bugs	The total number of issues impacting reliability (reliability issues).
Bugs on new code	new_bugs	The total number of reliability issues raised for the first time on new code.
Reliability rating	reliability_rating	Rating related to reliability. The rating grid is as follows: A = 0 bug B = at least one minor bug C = at least one major bug D = at least one critical bug E = at least one blocker bug
Reliability rating on new code	new_reliability_rating	Rating related to reliability on new code.
Reliability remediation effort	reliability_remediation_effort	The effort to fix all reliability issues. The remediation cost of an issue is taken over from the effort (in minutes) assigned to the rule that raised the issue. An 8-hour day is assumed when values are shown in days.
Reliability remediation effort on new code	new_reliability_remmediation_effort	The same as Reliability remediation effort but on new code.

Maintainability

A list of Maintainability metrics used in the Sonar solution.

Metric	Metric key	Definition
Code smells	code_smells	The total number of issues impacting the maintainability (maintainability issues).
Code smells on new code	new_code_smells	The total number of maintainability issues raised for the first time on new code.
Technical debt	sqale_index	A measure of effort to fix all maintainability issues.
Technical debt on new code	new_technical_debt	A measure of effort to fix the maintainability issues raised for the first time on new code.
Technical debt ratio	sqale_debt_ratio	The ratio between the cost to develop the software and the cost to fix it.
Technical debt ratio on new code	new_sqale_debt_ratio	The ratio between the cost to develop the code changed on new code and the cost of the issues linked to it.
Maintainability rating	sqale_rating	The rating related to the value of the technical debt ratio.
Maintainability rating on new code	new_squale _rating	The rating related to the value of the technical debt ratio on new code.

Technical debt

The technical debt is the sum of the maintainability issue remediation costs. An issue remediation cost is the effort (in minutes) evaluated to fix the issue. It is taken over from the effort assigned to the rule that raised the issue.

An 8-hour day is assumed when the technical debt is shown in days.

Technical debt ratio

The technical debt ratio is the ratio between the cost to develop the software and the technical debt (the cost to fix it). It is calculated based on the following formula:

sqale_debt_ratio = technical debt /(cost to develop one line of code * number of lines of code)

Where the cost to develop one line of code is predefined in the database (by default, 30 minutes)

Example:

• Technical debt: 122,563

• Number of lines of code: 63,987

• Cost to develop one line of code: 30 minutes

• Technical debt ratio: 6.4%

Maintainability rating

The default Maintainability rating scale (sqale_rating) is:

• A ≤ 5%

• B ≥ 5% to <10%

• C ≥ 10% to <20%

• D ≥ 20% to < 50%

• E ≥ 50%

Security review

A list of security review metrics used in the Sonar solution. See Security hotspots for more details.

Metric	Metric key	Definition
Security hotspots	security_hotspots	The number of security hotspots.
Security hotspots on new code	new_security_hotspots	The number of security hotspots on new code.
Security hotspots reviewed	security_hotspots_reviewed	The percentage of reviewed security hotspots compared in relation to the total number of security hotspots.
New security hotspots reviewed	new_security_hotspots_reviewed	The percentage of reviewed security hotspots on new code.
Security review rating	security_review_rating	The security review rating is a letter grade based on the percentage of reviewed security hotspots. Note that security hotspots are considered reviewed if they are marked as Acknowledged, Fixed, or Safe. The rating grid is as follows: A = >= 80% B = >= 70% and <80% C = >= 50% and <70% D = >= 30% and <50% E = < 30%
Security review rating on new code	new_security_review_rating	The security review rating for new code.

Coverage

A list of coverage metrics used in the Sonar solution. See the Overview page on test coverage, for more details.

Metric	Metric key	Definition
Coverage	coverage	A mix of line coverage and condition coverage. Its goal is to provide an even more accurate answer to the question: How much of the source code has been covered by unit tests? coverage = (CT + LC)/(B + EL) where: CT: conditions that have been evaluated to true at least once LC: covered lines = lines_to_cover - uncovered_lines B: total number of conditions EL: total number of executable lines (lines_to_cover)
Coverage on new code	new_coverage	This definition is identical to coverage but is restricted to new or updated source code.
Lines to cover	lines_to_cover	Coverable lines. The number of lines of code that could be covered by unit tests, for example, blank lines or full comments lines are not considered as lines to cover. Note that this metric is about what is possible, not what is left to do - that’s uncovered lines.
Lines to cover on new code	new_lines_to_cover	This definition is identical to lines to cover but restricted to new or updated source code.
Uncovered lines	uncovered_lines	The number of lines of code that are not covered by unit tests.
Uncovered lines on new code	new_uncovered_lines	This definition is identical to uncovered lines but restricted to new or updated source code.
Line coverage	line_coverage	On a given line of code, line coverage simply answers the question: Has this line of code been executed during the execution of the unit tests? It is the density of covered lines by unit tests: line_coverage = LC / EL where: LC = covered lines = lines_to_cover - uncovered_lines EL = total number of executable lines (lines_to_cover)
Line coverage on new code	new_line_coverage	This definition is identical to line coverage but restricted to new or updated source code.
Line coverage hits	coverage_line_hist_data	A list of covered lines.
Condition coverage	branch_coverage	The condition coverage answers the following question on each line of code containing boolean expressions: Has each boolean expression been evaluated both to true and to false? This is the density of possible conditions in flow control structures that have been followed during unit tests execution. branch_coverage = (CT + CF) / (2*B) where: CT = conditions that have been evaluated to true at least once CF = conditions that have been evaluated to false at least once B = total number of conditions
Condition coverage on new code	new_branch_coverage	This definition is identical to condition coverage but is restricted to new or updated source code.
Condition coverage hits	branch_coverage_hits_data	A list of covered conditions.
Conditions by line	conditions_by_line	The number of conditions by line.
Covered conditions by line	covered_conditions_by_line	Number of covered conditions by line.
Uncovered conditions	uncovered_conditions	The number of conditions that are not covered by unit tests.
Uncovered conditions on new code	new_uncovered_conditions	This definition is identical to Uncovered conditions but restricted to new or updated source code.
Unit tests	tests	The number of unit tests.
Unit test errors	test_errors	The number of unit tests that have failed.
Unit test failures	test_failures	The number of unit tests that have failed with an unexpected exception.
Skipped unit tests	skipped_tests	The number of skipped unit tests.
Unit tests duration	test_execution_time	The time required to execute all the unit tests.
Unit test success density (%)	test_success_density	test_success_density = (tests - (test_errors + test_failures)) / (tests) * 100

Duplications

A list of duplication metrics used in the Sonar solution.

Metric	Metric key	Definition
Duplicated lines density (%)	duplicated_lines_density	Duplicated lines density is calculated by using the following formula: duplicated_lines_density= duplicated_lines / lines * 100
Duplicated lines density (%) on new code	new_duplicated_lines_density	The same as duplicated lines density but on new code.
Duplicated lines	duplicated_lines	The number of lines involved in duplications.
Duplicated lines on new code	new_duplicated_lines	The number of lines involved in duplications on new code.
Duplicated blocks	duplicated_blocks	The number of duplicated blocks of lines. For a block of code to be considered as duplicated, for Non-Java projects: There should be at least 100 successive and duplicated tokens. Those tokens should be spread at least on: 30 lines of code for COBOL 20 lines of code for ABAP 10 lines of code for other languages for Java projects: There should be at least 10 successive and duplicated statements whatever the number of tokens and lines. Differences in indentation and in string literals are ignored while detecting duplications.
Duplicated block on new code	new_duplicated_blocks	The number of duplicated blocks of lines on new code.
Duplicated files	duplicated_files	The number of files involved in duplications.

Size

A list of size metrics used in the Sonar solution.

Metric	Metric key	Definition
New lines	new_lines	The number of physical lines on new code (number of carriage returns).
Lines of code	ncloc	The number of physical lines that contain at least one character which is neither a whitespace nor a tabulation nor part of a comment.
Lines	lines	The number of physical lines (number of carriage returns).
Statements	statements	The number of statements.
Functions	functions	The number of functions. Depending on the language, a function is defined as either a function, a method, or a paragraph. Language-specific details: COBOL: It’s the number of paragraphs. Dart: Any function expression is included, whether it’s the body of a function declaration, of a method, constructor, getter, top-level or nested function, top-level or nested lambda. Java: Methods in anonymous classes are ignored. VB.NET: Accessors are not considered to be methods.
Classes	classes	The number of classes (including nested classes, interfaces, enums, annotations, mixins, extensions, and extension types).
Files	files	The number of files.
Comment lines	comment_lines	The number of lines containing either comment or commented-out code. See below for calculation details.
Comments (%)	comment_lines_density	The comment lines density. It is calculated based on the following formula: comment_lines_density=[comment_lines / (lines + comment_lines)] * 100 Examples: 50% means that the number of lines of code equals the number of comment lines. 100% means that the file only contains comment lines.
Lines of code per language	ncloc_language_distribution	The non-commented lines of code distributed by language.
Projects	projects	The number of projects in a portfolio.

Comment lines

Non-significant comment lines (empty comment lines, comment lines containing only special characters, etc.) do not increase the number of comment lines.

The following piece of code contains 9 comment lines:

/**                                            +0 => empty comment line
 *                                             +0 => empty comment line
 * This is my documentation                    +1 => significant comment
 * although I don't                            +1 => significant comment
 * have much                                   +1 => significant comment
 * to say                                      +1 => significant comment
 *                                             +0 => empty comment line
 ***************************                   +0 => non-significant comment
 *                                             +0 => empty comment line
 * blabla...                                   +1 => significant comment
 */                                            +0 => empty comment line

/**                                            +0 => empty comment line
 * public String foo() {                       +1 => commented-out code
 *   System.out.println(message);              +1 => commented-out code
 *   return message;                           +1 => commented-out code
 * }                                           +1 => commented-out code
 */                                            +0 => empty comment line

In addition:

• For COBOL: Generated lines of code and pre-processing instructions (SKIP1, SKIP2, SKIP3, COPY, EJECT, REPLACE) are not counted as lines of code.

• For Java and Dart: File headers are not counted as comment lines (because they usually define the license).

Complexity

Complexity metrics used in the Sonar solution.

Metric	Metric key	Definition
Cyclomatic complexity	complexity	A quantitative metric used to calculate the number of paths through the code.
Cognitive complexity	cognitive_complexity	A qualification of how hard it is to understand the code’s control flow. See the Cognitive Complexity white paper for a complete description of the mathematical model applied to compute this measure.

Cyclomatic complexity

Cyclomatic complexity is a quantitative metric used to calculate the number of paths through the code. The analyzer calculates the score of this metric for a given function (depending on the language, it may be a function, a method, a subroutine, etc.) by incrementing the function’s cyclomatic complexity counter by one each time the control flow of the function splits resulting in a new conditional branch. Each function has a minimum complexity of 1. The calculation formula is as follows:

Cyclomatic complexity = 1 + number of conditional branches

The calculation of the overall code’s cyclomatic complexity is basically the sum of all complexity scores calculated at the function level. In some languages, the complexity of external functions is additionally taken into account.

Split detection by language.

ABAP

The ABAP analyzer calculates the cyclomatic complexity at the function level. It increments the cyclomatic complexity by one each time it detects one of the following keywords:

• AND

• CATCH

• DO

• ELSEIF

• IF

• LOOP

• LOOPAT

• OR

• PROVIDE

• SELECT…ENDSELECT

• TRY

• WHEN

• WHILE

C/C++/Objective-C

The C/C++/Objective-C analyzer calculates the cyclomatic complexity at function and coroutine levels. It increments the cyclomatic complexity by one each time it detects:

• A control statement such as: if, while, do while, for

• A switch statement keyword such as: case, default

• The && and || operators

• The ? ternary operator

• A lambda expression definition

Each time the analyzer scans a header file as part of a compilation unit, it computes the measures for this header: statements, functions, classes, cyclomatic complexity, and cognitive complexity. That means that each measure may be computed more than once for a given header. In that case, it stores the largest value for each measure.

C#

The C# analyzer calculates the cyclomatic complexity at method and property levels. It increments the cyclomatic complexity by one each time it detects:

• one of these function declarations: method, constructor, destructor, property, accessor, operator, or local function declaration.

• A conditional expression

• A conditional access

• A switch case or switch expression arm

• An and/or pattern

• One of these statements: do, for, foreach, if, while

• One of these expressions: ??, ??=, ||, or &&

COBOL

The COBOL analyzer calculates the cyclomatic complexity at paragraph, section, and program levels. It increments the cyclomatic complexity by one each time it detects one of these commands (except when they are used in a copybook):

• ALSO

• ALTER

• AND

• DEPENDING

• END_OF_PAGE

• ENTRY

• EOP

• EXCEPTION

• EXEC CICS HANDLE

• EXEC CICS LINK

• EXEC CICS XCTL

• EXEC CICS RETURN

• EXIT

• GOBACK

• IF

• INVALID

• OR

• OVERFLOW

• SIZE

• STOP

• TIMES

• UNTIL

• USE

• VARYING

• WHEN

Dart

The Dart analyzer calculates the cyclomatic complexity for:

• top-level functions

• top-level function expressions (lambdas)

• methods

• accessors (getters and setters)

• constructors

It increments the complexity by one for each of the structures listed above. It doesn’t increment the complexity for nested function declarations or expressions.

In addition, the count is incremented by one for each:

• short-circuit binary expression or logical patterns (&&, ||, ??)

• if-null assignments (??=)

• conditional expressions (?:)

• null-aware operators (?[, ?., ?.., ...?)

• propagating cascades (a?..b..c)

• if statement or collection

• loop (for, while, do, and for collection)

case or pattern in a switch statement or expression

Java

The Java analyzer calculates the cyclomatic complexity at the method level. It increments the Cyclomatic complexity by one each time it detects one of these keywords:

• if

• for

• while

• case

• &&

• ||

• ?

• ->

JS/TS, PHP

The JS/TS analyzer calculates the cyclomatic complexity at the function level. The PHP analyzer calculates the cyclomatic complexity at the function and class levels. Both analyzers increment the cyclomatic complexity by one each time they detect:

• A function (i.e non-abstract and non-anonymous constructors, functions, procedures or methods)

• An if or (for PHP) elsif keyword

• A short-circuit (AKA lazy) logical conjunction (&&)

• A short-circuit (AKA lazy) logical disjunction (||)

• A ternary conditional expression

• A loop

• A case clause of a switch statement

• A throw or a catch statement

• A goto statement (only for PHP)

PL/I

The PL/I analyzer increments the cyclomatic complexity by one each time it detects one of the following keywords:

• PROC

• PROCEDURE

• GOTO

• GO TO

• DO

• IF

• WHEN

• |

• !

• |=

• !=

• &

• &=

• A DO statement with conditions (Type 1 DO statements are ignored)

For procedures having more than one return statement: each additional return statement except for the last one, will increment the complexity metric.

PL/SQL

The PL/SQL analyzer calculates the cyclomatic complexity at the function and procedure level. It increments the cyclomatic complexity by one each time it detects:

• The main PL/SQL anonymous block (not inner ones)

• One of the following statements:

  • CREATE PROCEDURE

  • CREATE TRIGGER

  • basic LOOP

  • WHEN clause (the WHEN of simple CASE statement and searched CASE statement)

  • cursor FOR LOOP

  • CONTINUE / EXIT WHEN clause (The WHEN part of the CONTINUE and EXIT statements)

  • exception handler (every individual WHEN)

  • EXIT

  • FORLOOP

  • FORALL

  • IF

  • ELSIF

  • RAISE

  • WHILELOOP

• One of the following expressions:

  • AND expression (AND reserved word used within PL/SQL expressions)

  • OR expression (OR reserved word used within PL/SQL expressions),

  • WHEN clause expression (the WHEN of simple CASE expression and searched CASE expression)

VB.NET

The VB.NET analyzer calculates the cyclomatic complexity at function, procedure, and property levels. It increments the cyclomatic complexity by one each time it detects:

• a method or constructor declaration (Sub, Function),

• AndAlso

• Case

• Do

• End

• Error

• Exit

• For

• ForEach

• GoTo

• If

• Loop

• On Error

• OrElse

• Resume

• Stop

• Throw

• Try

• While

Issues

A list of issues metrics used in the Sonar solution. See the Issue management solution page for information about how SonarQube Cloud identifies issues and manages its life cycle.

Metric	Metric key	Definition
Issues	violations	The number of issues in all states.
Issues on new code	new_violations	The number of issues raised for the first time on new code.
Accepted issues	accepted_issues	The number of issues marked as Accepted.
Open issues	open_issues	The number of issues in the Openstatus.
Accepted issues on new code	new_accepted_issues	The number of Accepted issues on new code.
False positive issues	false_positive_issues	The number of issues marked as False positive.
Blocker issues (software quality)	software_quality_blocker_issues	Issues with Blocker software quality severity level.
High issues (software quality)	software_quality_high_issues	Issues with High software quality severity level.
Medium issues (software quality)	software_quality_medium_issues	Issues with Medium software quality severity level.
Low issues (software quality)	software_quality_low_issues	Issues with Low software quality severity level.
Info issues (software quality)	software_quality_info_issues	Issues with Info software quality severity level.
Blocker issues (type)	blocker_violations	Issues with Blocker type severity level.
Critical issues (type)	critical_violations	Issues with Critical type severity level.
Major issues (type)	major_violations	Issues with Major type severity level.
Minor issues (type)	minor_violations	Issues with Minor type severity level.
Info issues (type)	info_violations	Issues with Info type severity level.

Severities are tied to the Software qualities (security, reliability, maintainability) and types (vulnerability, bug, code smell) of issues they impact. Quality gate conditions related to severity currently use type severities.

Quality Gates

Quality gates metrics used in the Sonar solution.

Metric	Metric key	Definition
Quality gate status	alert_status	The state of the quality gate associated with your project. Possible values are ERROR and OK.
Quality gate details	quality_gate_details	Status (passed or failed) of each condition in the quality gate.