Calculate code metrics [closed]

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60394

metrics

09-06-2019
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Question

Are there any tools available that will calculate code metrics (for example number of code lines, cyclomatic complexity, coupling, cohesion) for your project and over time produce a graph showing the trends?

Solution

On my latest project I used SourceMonitor. It's a nice free tool for code metrics analysis.
Here is an excerpt from SourceMonitor official site:

Collects metrics in a fast, single pass through source files.

Measures metrics for source code written in C++, C, C#, VB.NET, Java, Delphi, Visual Basic (VB6) or HTML.

Includes method and function level metrics for C++, C, C#, VB.NET, Java, and Delphi.

Saves metrics in checkpoints for comparison during software development projects.

Displays and prints metrics in tables and charts.

Operates within a standard Windows GUI or inside your scripts using XML command files.

Exports metrics to XML or CSV (comma-separated-value) files for further processing with other tools.

For .NET beside NDepend which is simply the best tool, I can recommend vil.

Following tools can perform trend analysis:

OTHER TIPS

Sonar is definitively a tool that you must consider, especially for Java projects. However it will also handle PHP or C/C++, Flex and Cobol code.

Here is a screenshot that show some metrics on a project:

alt text http://sonar.codehaus.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/squid-metrics.png

Note that you can try the tool by using their demo site at http://nemo.sonarsource.org

NDepend for .net

I was also looking for a code metrics tool/plugin for my IDE but as far as I know there are none (for eclipse that is) that also show a graph of the complexity over a specified time period. However, I did find the eclipse metrics plugin, it can handle:

McCabe's Cyclomatic Complexity
Efferent Couplings
Lack of Cohesion in Methods
Lines Of Code in Method
Number Of Fields
Number Of Levels
Number Of Locals In Scope
Number Of Parameters
Number Of Statements
Weighted Methods Per Class

And while using it, I didn't miss the graphing option you are seeking as well.
I think that, if you don't find any plugins/tools that can handle the graphing over time, you should look at the tool that suits you most and offers you all the information you need; even if the given information is only for the current build of your project.

As a side note, the eclipse metrics plugin allows you to export the data to an external file (link goes to an example), so if you use a source control tool, and you should!, you can always export the data for the specific build and store the file along with the source code, that way you still have a (basic) way to go back in time and check the differences.

keep in mind, What you measure is what you get. loc says nothing about productivity or efficency.

rate a programmer by lines of code and you will get.. lines of code. the same argument goes for other metrics.

otoh.. http://www.crap4j.org/ is a very conservative and useful metric. it sets complexity in relation with coverage.

NDepend, I am using it and its best for this purpose. Check this : http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/NDepend.aspx

Concerning the tool NDepend it comes with 82 different code metric, from Number of Lines of Code, to Method Rank (popularity), Cyclomatic Complexity, Lack of Cohesion of Methods, Percentage Coverage (extracted from NCover or VSTS), Depth of Inheritance...

With its rule system, NDepend can also find issues and estimates technical debt which is an interesting code metric (amount of dev-effort to fix problems vs. amount of dev-time spoiled per year to let problems unfixed).

All these metrics are detailled here.

If you're in the .NET space, Developer Express' CodeRush provides LOC, Cyclomatic Complexity and the (rather excellent, IMHO) Maintenance Complexity analysis of code in real-time.

(Sorry about the Maintenance Complexity link; it's going to Google's cache. The original seems to be offline ATM).

Atlassian FishEye is another excellent tool for the job. It integrates with your source control system (currently supports CVS, SVN and Perforce), and analyzes all your files that way. The analysis is rather basic though, and the product itself is commercial (but very reasonably priced, IMO).

You can also get an add-on for it called Crucible that facilitates peer code reviews.

For Visual Studio .NET (at least C# and VB.NET) I find the free StudioTools to be extremely useful for metrics. It also adds a number of features found in commercial tools such as ReSharper.

Code Analyzer is simple tool which generates this kind of metrics.

_{(source: teel.ws)}

For Python, pylint can provide some code quality metrics.

There's also a code metrics plugin for reflector, in case you are using .NET.

I would recommend Code Metrics Viewer Exention for visual studio.

It is very easy to analyze solution at once, also do comparison if you made progress ;-)