Java Utility
Utilities for Java are meant to be used for Java QA Tools. This means that IDEs, build tools and deployment tools are not mentioned here, but are part of Java Development. The Quality Tools named can be used for Code Reviews, but also as plugins to help the programmers creating maintaining their code.
CheckStyle for Java
CheckStyle is a development tool to help programmers write Java code that adheres to a coding standard. It automates the process of checking Java code to spare humans of this boring (but important) task. This makes it ideal for projects that want to enforce a coding standard.
CheckStyle is highly configurable and can be made to support almost any coding standard. An example configuration file is supplied supporting the Sun Code Conventions. As well, other sample configuration files are supplied for other well known conventions.
Checkstyle has checks for:
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FindBugs
FindBugs™ (a trademark of the university of Maryland) looks for bugs in Java programs. It is based on the concept of bug patterns. A bug pattern is a code idiom that is often an error. Bug patterns arise for a variety of reasons:
- Difficult language features
- Misunderstood API methods
- Misunderstood invariants when code is modified during maintenance
- Garden variety mistakes: typos, use of the wrong boolean operator
FindBugs uses static analysis to inspect Java bytecode for occurrences of bug patterns. Because the analysis is sometimes imprecise, FindBugs can report false warnings. FindBugs uses BCEL to analyse java bytecode and dom4j for XML manipulation. To view the FindBug Bugs Descriptions reported by FindBugs
JavaNCSS
JavaNCSS (Non Commenting Source Statements) is a simple command line utility which measures two standard source code metrics for the Java programming language. The metrics are collected globally, for each class and/or for each function. Next to NCSS avaNCSS produces also CCN (Cyclomatic Complexity Number).
Lint for Java (Util4J)
Lint4j ("Lint for Java") is a static Java source and byte code analyzer that detects locking and threading issues, performance and scalability problems, and checks complex contracts such as Java serialization by performing type, data flow, and lock graph analysis.
PMD & CPD
PMD does not have a known name, but stands for Pretty Much Done, Project Mess Detector, Project Monitoring Directives, Project Meets Deadline, Programming Mistake Detector, Pounds Mistakes Dead, PMD Meaning Discovery (recursion, hooray!). Make your choice.
Programs of Mass Destruction
PMD scans Java source code and looks for potential problems like:
- Possible bugs - empty try/catch/finally/switch statements
- Dead code - unused local variables, parameters and private methods
- Suboptimal code - wasteful String/StringBuffer usage
- Overcomplicated expressions - unnecessary if statements, for loops that could be while loops
- Duplicate code - copied/pasted code means copied/pasted bugs, CPD report (Copt Paste Detection)
Simian
Simian (Similarity Analyser) identifies duplication in Java, C#, C, C++, COBOL, Ruby, JSP, ASP, HTML, XML, Visual Basic source code and even plain text files. In fact, simian can be used on any human readable files such as ini files, deployment descriptors, you name it. Simian can be used in the following ways:
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See also
External Links
- CheckStyle, Plugins for Eclipse/WSAD, jBuilder, NetBeans, blueJ, Emacs JDE, jEdit, Vim, Krysalis Centipede, Maven, Maven 2 and Ant.
- Find Bugs in Java Programs, Plugin for Eclipse/WSAD, Maven, Maven 2 and Ant.
- Java Metrics NCSS - Non Commenting Source Statements.
- Util4J Lint for Java, Plugins for Eclipse and Maven available.
- PMD Project Mess Detector
- Simian Simularity Analyser.
