Sonar metrics

Sonar metrics are categorized into the following categories:

Complexity
Design and Architecture
Documentation
Duplication
General
Unit Tests
Rules Compliance and Violations
Project Size
Management

Complexity metrics

Complexity metrics are available in the Complexity and Quality Index widgets in the dashboard. The Quality Index widget is available as a plugin.

Metric name	Definition	Sonar component
Complexity	The total Cyclomatic Complexity number was introduced by McCabe. For each of the following java statements the number increments by one: `if, for, while, case, catch, throw, return, &&, \|\|`, and `?`.	This is available via the Complexity widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Complexity Widget \| Total.
Complexity / class	Average Cyclomatic Complexity per class.	This is available via the Complexity widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Complexity widget \| Per Class metric.
Complexity / file	Average Cyclomatic Complexity per file.	This is available via the Complexity widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Complexity widget \| Per File metric.
Complexity / method	Average Cyclomatic Complexity per method.	This is available via the Complexity widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Complexity widget \| Per Method metric.
Complexity Factor	Density of complexity in methods in percentage.	This is available via the Quality Index widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Quality Index widget \| Complexity factor percentage.
Complexity Factor Methods	Methods with high complexity density.	These are available via the Quality Index widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Quality Index widget \| Complexity Factor Methods total.
QI Complexity	Complexity rating in respect to total LOC.	This is available via the Quality Index widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Quality Index widget \| QI Complexity Bar

The formula for the QI Complexity metric is:

(Complexity > 30 *10 + Complexity > 20 * 5 + Complexity > 10 * 3 + Complexity > 1) / effective lines of code

Design metrics

Abstractness and Instability design metrics as specified by Robert C. Martin have not been implemented yet; however, there is an open ticket by the Sonar development team at http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/SONAR-94.

Metric name	Definition	Sonar component
Abstractness	The ratio of the number of abstract classes (and interfaces) to the total number of classes in the analyzed package.	To be implemented—open ticket SONAR-94.
Afferent couplings	Number of other classes that use this class.	These are available via the Sonar Sourcecode viewer Drill down to Class level \| Open in Sourcecode viewer \| Dependencies tab.
Depth in tree (DIT)	Number of parent classes.	To be implemented—open ticket SONAR-94
Efferent couplings	Number of classes that are used by this class.	This is available via the Sonar source code viewer. Drill down to Class level \| Open in Sourcecode viewer \| Dependencies tab
File dependencies to cut	Total number of dependencies between files.	This is available via the Package Design widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Package Design widget \| Total dependencies between files.
Instability	The number of classes inside a package that depend on classes outside the package.	This is available via the Sonar source code viewer. Drill down to Class level \| Open in Sourcecode viewer \| Dependencies tab
Lack of cohesion of methods (LCOM4)	Correlation between the methods and the local instance variables of a class. Methods not related to local fields increase the class LCOM number by one.	These are available via the Sonar source code viewer. Drill down to Class level \| Open in Sourcecode viewer \| LCOM4 tab Alternatively, navigate to Dashboard \| Chidamber and Kemerer widget \| Files having LCOM4 greater than 1.
Number of Children (NOC)	Number of descendants of the class.	This is available via the Sonar source code viewer Drill down to Class level \| Open in Sourcecode viewer \| Source tab (on the left-hand side of the header)
Package cycles	The minimum number of package cycles detected while traversing a package to identify dependencies.	These are available via the Package Design widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Package Design widget \| Total cycles.
Package dependencies to cut	Total number of dependencies between packages.	This is available via the Package Design widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Package Design widget \| Total dependencies between packages.
Package tangle index	Level of tangle of the packages; the best is 0 percent.	This is available via the Package Design widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Package Design widget \| Package tangle index in percentage.
Response For Class (RFC)	Total number of methods that can be potentially executed by an object of this class counting distinct calls made by the methods in the class.	This is available via the Chidamber and Kemerer widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Chidamber and Kemerer widget \| Response for Class \| value/class.

Documentation metrics

Documentation-related metrics are available via the Comments and Duplications widget.

Metric name	Definition	Sonar component
Blank comments	Empty comment lines.	These are available via the Treemap. Navigate to Dashboard \| Components \| Treemap on the right \| Set size to Blank Comments metric.
Comment lines	Number of Javadoc, multi-comment, and single-comment lines. Empty comment lines, header file comments, and commented-out lines of code are not included.	These are available via the Comments and Duplications widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Comments and Duplications widget \| total lines.
Commented-out LOC	Commented out lines of code. The Javadoc blocks are excluded.	This is available via the Comments and Duplications widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Comments and Duplications widget \| total commented LOCs.
Density of Comments (%)	Number of comment lines / (lines of code + number of comments lines) 100*.	This is available via the Comments and Duplications widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Comments and Duplications widget \| comments percentage value.
Density of Public documented API (%)	(Number of public API - Number of undocumented public API) / Number of public API 100*.	This is available via the Comments and Duplications widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Comments and Duplications widget \| documented API percentage value.
Public undocumented API	Number of public API without Javadoc.	This is available via the Comments and Duplications widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Comments and Duplications widget \| undocumented API total value.

Duplication metrics

Duplication metrics are available via the Comments and Duplications widget and the Useless Code Tracker is available as a plugin.

Metric name	Definition	Sonar component
Duplicated blocks	Number of comment lines / (lines of code + number of comments lines) 100*.	This is available via the Comments and Duplications widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Comments and Duplications widget \| number of blocks.
Duplicated files	Number of files containing duplicated code.	This is available via the Comments and Duplications widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Comments and Duplications widget \| number of files.
Duplicated lines	Number of physical lines touched by duplication.	This is available via the Comments and Duplications widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Comments and Duplications widget \| number of lines.
Density of duplicated lines (%)	Duplicated lines / Physical lines 100*.	This is available via the Comments and Duplications widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Comments and Duplications widget \| percentage value.
Useless code	Total number of lines that can potentially be reduced via refactoring.	This is available via the Useless Code Tracker widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Useless Code Tracker widget \| total number of useless LOCs.

General metrics

The Quality Index metric is available through the Quality Index plugin. Install it from http://docs.codehaus.org/display/SONAR/Quality+Index+Plugin or from Sonar Update Center | Plugin Library.

Metric name	Definition	Sonar component
Profile version	Version of the Sonar analysis profile.	This is available via the Description widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Description widget \| Profile Version value.
Quality Index	A value on scale of 0 to 10 based on the following four weighted axes of quality: Coding Violations, Complexity, Coverage, and Checkstyle Standards	This is available via the Quality Index widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Quality Index Widget \| Total Quality value.

Metric name

Definition

Sonar component

Profile version

Version of the Sonar analysis profile.

This is available via the Description widget.

Navigate to Dashboard | Description widget | Profile Version value.

Quality Index

A value on scale of 0 to 10 based on the following four weighted axes of quality:

Coding Violations, Complexity, Coverage, and Checkstyle Standards

This is available via the Quality Index widget.

Navigate to Dashboard | Quality Index Widget | Total Quality value.

Code Coverage and Unit Test metrics

Code Coverage and Unit Test metrics are displayed with the Coverage widget from the project dashboard. In differential mode, the widget reports only on new/updated code, as you can see in the following screenshot:

In the following table, the Sonar Component column is omitted because all metrics are available from the same widget—the Code Coverage widget.

Metric name	Definition
Branch Coverage	Percentage value of covered branches in program flow structures (Boolean expressions).
Coverage	Percentage value of total coverage combining line and branch coverage.
Line Coverage	Percentage value of number of lines executed/covered in unit tests.
Lines to cover	Total number of uncovered LOCs in unit tests.
New branch coverage	As Branch Coverage but only for new/updated code.
New branches to cover	Total number of uncovered branches only in new/updated code.
New coverage	As Coverage but only for new/updated code.
New line coverage	As Line Coverage but only for new/updated code.
New lines to cover	As Lines to cover but only for new/updated code.
Uncovered branches	Total number of branches not covered by unit tests.
Uncovered lines	Total number of lines of code that are not covered by unit tests.
New uncovered branches	As Uncovered branches to cover but only for new/updated code.
New uncovered lines	As Uncovered lines to cover but only for new/updated code.
Skipped unit tests	Number of skipped unit tests.
Unit tests	Total number of unit tests.
Unit test errors	Number of unit test errors—assertion errors.
Unit test failures	Number of unit tests that failed with an unhandled exception.
Unit test success (%)	Percentage value of successful unit tests—excluding errors and failures.
Unit tests duration	Total duration of unit tests' execution time.

The formula for the Coverage metric as implemented by the Sonar development team is:

Coverage = (CT + CF + LC) / (2*B + EL)

CT: Branches that evaluated to true at least once
CF: Branches that evaluated to false at least once
LC: Lines covered (lines_to_cover - uncovered_lines)
B: Total number of branches (2*B = conditions_to_cover)
EL: Total number of executable lines (lines_to_cover)

Rules Compliance metrics

You can review Rules and Violations metrics from the project dashboard by using the default Rules Compliance widget and Useless Code Tracker with Quality Index widgets available as plugins. Notice that the widgets report on new violations and metric values when in differential mode for new/updated code.

Metric name	Definition	Sonar component
Rules Compliance	Weighted violations percentage value.	This is available via the Rules Compliance widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Rules Compliance widget \| percentage value
Violations	Total number of code violations.	This is available via the Rules Compliance widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Rules Compliance widget \| Total number
Weighted Violations	Total sum of weighted violations (number of violations weight value)*	This is available via the Rules Compliance widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Rules Compliance widget.
Blocker Violations	Total value of Blocker level code violations.	This is available via the Rules Compliance widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Rules Compliance widget \| Blocker.
Critical Violations	Total value of Critical-level code violations.	This is available via the Rules Compliance widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Rules Compliance widget \| Critical
Major Violations	Total value of Major-level code violations.	This is available via the Rules Compliance widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Rules Compliance widget \| Major.
Minor Violations	Total value of Minor-level code violations.	This is available via the Rules Compliance widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Rules Compliance widget \| Minor.
Info Violations	Total value of Info-level code violations.	This is available via the Rules Compliance widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Rules Compliance widget \| Info.
New Blocker Violations	Same as Blocker Violations but for new/updated code only.	This is available via the Rules Compliance widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Rules Compliance widget \| Blocker in differential mode.
New Critical Violations	Same as Critical violations but for new/updated code only.	This is available via the Rules Compliance widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Rules Compliance widget \| Critical in differential mode.
New Major Violations	Same as Info violations but for new/updated code only.	This is available via the Rules Compliance widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Rules Compliance widget \| Major in differential mode.
New Minor Violations	Same as Major violations but for new/updated code only.	This is available via the Rules Compliance widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Rules Compliance widget \| Minor in differential mode.
New Info Violations	Same as Minor violations but for new/updated code only.	This is available via the Rules Compliance widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Rules Compliance widget \| Info in differential mode.
New Violations	Total number of violations in new code only.	This is available via the Rules Compliance widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Rules Compliance widget \| Added in differential mode.
Dead Code	Total lines of code in unused private methods.	This is available via the Useless Code Tracker widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Useless Code Tracker widget \| total number of LOCs.
Potential Dead Code	Total lines of code in unused protected methods.	This is available via the Useless Code Tracker widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Useless Code Tracker widget \| total number of LOCs.
Quality Index Coding Weighted Violations	Quality Index on Coding violations calculated is by the formula: (Blocker 10 + Critical * 5 + Major * 3 + Minor + Info) / LOCs*	This is available via the Quality Index widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Quality Index widget \| Coding Bar.
Quality Index Style Weighted Violations	Quality Index on Checkstyle violations is calculated by the formula: QI Style = (Errors10 + Warnings) / LOCs * 10*	This is available via the Quality Index widget. Navigate to Dashboard \| Quality Index widget \| Style Bar.

Size metrics

The following metrics are displayed in the Size widget from the project dashboard. On the left-hand side of the widget there is information on line levels and statements, while on the right-hand side of the widget there is information on packages and classes.

Metric name	Definition
Accessors	Number of getter and setter methods.
Classes	Number of classes including nested classes, interfaces, enums, and annotations.
Directories	Number of analyzed directories.
Files	Number of analyzed files.
Lines	Number of carriage returns.
Lines of code	Number of physical lines of code excluding blanks, comments, and commented-out code.
Methods	Total number of methods excluding accessors.
Packages	Total number of packages.
Statements	Total number of statements. The statements counter gets incremented by one each time one of the following is encountered: `expression, if, else, while, do, for, switch, break, continue, return, throw, synchronized, catch`, and `finally`.

Management metrics

The next three metrics are business oriented and you can add them to the Custom Measures widget. You can also add it to the dashboard.

Metric name	Definition
Burned Budget	The budget already used in the project.
Business Value	An indication of the value of the project to the business.
Team size	The size of the project team.

Sonar Code Quality Testing Essentials

By : Charalampos S Arapidis

Sonar Code Quality Testing Essentials

By: Charalampos S Arapidis

Overview of this book

Sonar metrics

Complexity metrics

Design metrics

Documentation metrics

Duplication metrics

General metrics

Code Coverage and Unit Test metrics

Rules Compliance metrics

Size metrics

Management metrics

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Sonar Code Quality Testing Essentials

By : Charalampos S Arapidis

Sonar Code Quality Testing Essentials

By: Charalampos S Arapidis

Overview of this book

Sonar metrics

Complexity metrics

Design metrics

Documentation metrics

Duplication metrics

General metrics

Code Coverage and Unit Test metrics

Rules Compliance metrics

Size metrics

Management metrics

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