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Good Practice Defects

Defects that allow you to observe good coding practices such as detection of hard-coded memory buffer size or unused function parameters

These defects allow you to observe good coding practices. The defects by themselves might not cause a crash, but they sometimes highlight more serious logical errors in your code. The defects also make your code vulnerable to attacks and hard to maintain. The defects include:

  • Hard-coded constants such as buffer size and loop boundary

  • Issues that hinder code readability

  • Potential coding errors

  • Missing const

Polyspace Results

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Ambiguous declaration syntaxDeclaration syntax can be interpreted as object declaration or part of function declaration
Incorrectly indented statementStatement indentation incorrectly makes it appear as part of a block (Since R2020a)
Invalid scientific notation formatthe use of an invalid format makes the code less readable (Since R2022b)
Line with more than one statementMultiple statements on a line
Duplicated codeA section of code is duplicated in other places (Since R2023a)
Partially duplicated codeA section of code is duplicated in other places with very minor changes (Since R2023a)
Hard-coded buffer sizeSize of memory buffer is a numerical value instead of symbolic constant
Hard-coded loop boundaryLoop boundary is a numerical value instead of symbolic constant
Hard-coded object size used to manipulate memoryMemory manipulation with hard-coded size instead of sizeof
Method not constA method that can be made const is not marked const (Since R2022a)
Public static field not constA static and public field of a struct or class is not marked as a const (Since R2022a)
Unmodified variable not const-qualifiedVariable not const-qualified but variable value not modified during lifetime (Since R2020a)
Macro terminated with a semicolonMacro definition ends with a semicolon (Since R2020a)
Macro with multiple statementsMacro consists of multiple semicolon-terminated statements, enclosed in braces or not (Since R2020a)
Missing break of switch casecase block of switch statement does not end in a break, [[fallthrough]] or explanatory comment
Possibly inappropriate data type for switch expressionswitch expression has a data type other than char, short, int or enum (Since R2020a)
Semicolon on same line as if, for or while statementSemicolon on same line results in empty body of if, for or while statement (Since R2020a)
Delete of void pointerdelete operates on a void* pointer pointing to an object
Missing overload of allocation or deallocation functionOnly one function in an allocation-deallocation function pair is overloaded
Missing reset of a freed pointerPointer free not followed by a reset statement to clear leftover data
C++ reference to const-qualified type with subsequent modificationReference to const-qualified type is subsequently modified
C++ reference type qualified with const or volatileReference type declared with a redundant const or volatile qualifier
Declaration of catch for generic exceptionA catch block handles a generic exception that might have many different subtypes (Since R2022a)
Declaration of throw for generic exceptionA function throws a generic exception, which might have many subtypes (Since R2022a)
Reference to un-named temporaryLocal reference is declared by using unnamed temporary variable that a function returns by value (Since R2023a)
Incorrect syntax of flexible array member sizeFlexible array member defined with size zero or one
Use of a forbidden functionUse of function that appears in a blocklist of forbidden functions (Since R2020a)
Use of a forbidden keywordUse of keyword that appears in a blocklist of forbidden keywords (Since R2022a)
Use of a forbidden macroUse of macro that appears in a blocklist of forbidden macros (Since R2022b)
Use of setjmp/longjmpsetjmp and longjmp cause deviation from normal control flow
Bitwise and arithmetic operation on the same dataStatement with mixed bitwise and arithmetic operations
File does not compileFile has a compilation error (Since R2021a)
Unused parameterFunction prototype has parameters not read or written in function body
Unused variableVariable defined or declared but not read or written (Since R2024a)
Useless expressions in sizeof operandsizeof operand contains expression that is not evaluated (Since R2020a)
Useless includeAn include directive is present but not used (Since R2022b)
Useless captureLambda captures objects but does not use the objects (Since R2024b)

Topics

  • Bug Finder Defect Groups

    The Bug Finder defect checkers are classified into groups such as data flow, concurrency, numerical, and so on.