Metric definitions

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

This section explains the code metrics used in the Sonar solution by category.

Complexity

The table below lists the 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. See below.
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.

Both complexity metrics can be used in a quality gate condition on overall code.

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:

cyclomaticComplexity = 1 + numberOfConditionalBranches

The split detection is explained below by language.

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

ABAP

The ABAP analyzer calculates the Cyclomatic complexity at 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 for this header the measures: 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

Java

The Java analyzer calculates the Cyclomatic complexity at 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 function level. The PHP analyzer calculates the Cyclomatic complexity at 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 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 go to 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 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:

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

  • Rexpression ("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

Coverage

The table below lists the Overview metrics used in the Sonar solution.

Metric	Metric key	Definition
Condition coverage	branch_coverage	On each line of code containing some boolean expressions, the condition coverage answers the following question: ‘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. conditionCoverage = (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/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.
Coverage	coverage	A mix of Line coverage and Condition coverage. It’s goal is to provide an even more accurate answer the question ‘How much of the source code has been covered by the unit tests?’. coverage = (CT + LC)/(B + EL) where: • CT = conditions that have been evaluated to ‘true’ at least once • CF = conditions that have been evaluated to ‘false’ at least once • LC = covered lines = linesToCover - uncoveredLines • B = total number of conditions • EL = total number of executable lines (linesToCover)
Coverage on new code	new_coverage	This definition is identical to Coverage but is restricted to new/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 ( linesToCover - uncoveredLines ) • 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/updated source code.
Line coverage hits	coverage_line_hist_data	A list of covered lines.
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/updated source code.
Skipped unit tests	skipped_tests	The number of skipped unit tests.
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/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/updated source code.
Unit tests	tests	The number of unit tests.
Unit tests duration	test_execution_time	The time required to execute all the 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.
Unit test success density (%)	test_success_density	unitTestSuccessDensity = (unitTests - (unitTestErrors + unitTestFailures)) / (unitTests) * 100

Most of the coverage metrics can be used in a quality gate condition.

Duplications

The table below lists the duplication metrics used in the Sonar solution.

Metric	Metric key	Definition
Duplicated blocks	duplicated_blocks	The number of duplicated blocks of lines. For a block of code to be considered as duplicated: • 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 COBOL20 lines of code for ABAP10 lines of code for other languages • 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 • 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 files	duplicated_files	The number of files involved in duplications.
Duplicated lines	duplicated_lines	The number of lines involved in duplications.
Duplicated lines (%)	duplicated_lines_density	Is calculated by using the following formula: duplicated_lines / lines * 100

The duplication metrics can be used in a quality gate condition.

Issues

The table below lists the Introduction metrics used in the Sonar solution.

Metric	Metric key	Definition
New issues	new_violations	The total number of issues raised for the first time on new code.
Issues	violations	The total number of issues in all states.
False positive issues	false_positive_issues	The total number of issues marked as False positive.
Open issues	open_issues	The total number of issues in the Open status.
Accepted issues	accepted_issues	The total number of issues marked as Accepted.

All issues metrics can be used in a quality gate condition (on overall code) except New issues.

Maintainability

The table below lists the Clean Code benefits: the software qualities metrics used in the Sonar solution.

Metric	Metric key	Definition
Issues	code_smells	The total number of issues impacting the maintainability (maintainability issues).
New issues	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. See below.
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. See below.
Technical debt ratio	sqale_debt_ratio	The ratio between the cost to develop the software and the cost to fix it. See below.
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. See below.
Maintainability rating	sqale_rating	The rating related to the value of the technical debt ratio. See below.
Maintainability rating on new code	new_squale _rating	The rating related to the value of the technical debt ratio on new code. See below.

All maintainability metrics can be used in a quality gate condition.

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. The issue remediation cost 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:

technicalDebt /(costToDevelop1lineOfCode * numberOfLinesOfCode)

Where the cost to develop one line of code is predefined in the database (by default, 30 minutes, Modifying technical-debt parameters).

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 grid is:

A=0-0.05, B=0.06-0.1, C=0.11-0.20, D=0.21-0.5, E=0.51-1

The Maintainability rating scale can be alternately stated by saying that if the outstanding remediation cost is:

• <=5% of the time that has already gone into the application, the rating is A

• between 6 to 10% the rating is a B

• between 11 to 20% the rating is a C

• between 21 to 50% the rating is a D

• anything over 50% is an E

You can define another maintainability rating grid: see Modifying technical-debt parameters.

Quality gate

The table below lists the 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 (failing or not) of each condition in the quality gate.

Reliability

The table below lists the Clean Code benefits: the software qualities metrics used in the Sonar solution.

Metric	Metric key	Definition
Issues	bugs	The total number of issues impacting the reliability (reliability issues).
New issues	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 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 (see Technical debt above). 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.

All reliability metrics below can be used in a quality gate condition.

Security

The table below lists the Clean Code benefits: the software qualities metrics used in the Sonar solution.

Metric	Metric key	Definition
Issues	vulnerabilities	The total number of Security-related rules.
Issues 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 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 above). 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.
Security hotspots	security_hotspots	The number of security 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.

All security metrics can be used in a quality gate condition except the Security hotspots metrics.

Size

The table below lists the size metrics used in the Sonar solution.

Metric	Metric key	Definition
Classes	classes	The number of classes (including nested classes, interfaces, enums, and annotations).
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: [commentLines / (NumberOfLinesOfCode + commentLines)] * 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.
Files	files	The number of files.
Lines	lines	The number of physical lines (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 of code per language	ncloc_language_distribution	The non-commented lines of code distributed by language.
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. • Java: Methods in anonymous classes are ignored. • VB.NET: Accessors are not considered to be methods.
Projects	projects	The number of projects in a portfolio.
Statements	statements	The number of statements.

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: File headers are not counted as comment lines (because they usually define the license).

Most of the size metrics can be used in a quality gate condition.