CWE Rule 1071

Empty Code Block occurs when a code block does not contain code.

Unintentional empty code block can occur if you do not complete implementation or if you accidentally delete code. Unintentional missing code can cause errors or unexpected results.

Remove the empty code block if possible. Fill in the missing or deleted code if the code block is unintentionally empty due to accidental code deletion or incomplete implementation. If you can't remove or implement missing code, an empty code block can be replaced by an empty instruction. For example:

while (true)
;

In this example, the inner for loop code block is empty. The example shows a programming error where the developer probably wanted to enter the addition in the inner loop but added it in the outer loop by mistake.

int addAllElements(int *arr, int xSize, int ySize) {
    int sum = 0, i, j;
    for (i = 0; i < xSize; i++) {
        sum += *(arr + i * xSize + i);
        for (j = 0; j < ySize; j++) { //Noncompliant
            
        }
    }
    return sum;
}

In this example, you can fix the issue by moving the operation from the outer to the inner block.

int addAllElements(int *arr, int xSize, int ySize) {
    int sum = 0, i, j;
    for (i = 0; i < xSize; i++) {
        for (j = 0; j < ySize; j++) { //Compliant
           sum += *(arr + i * xSize + i);
        }
    }
    return sum;
}