Whitespace contradicts operator precedence¶
ID: java/whitespace-contradicts-precedence
Kind: problem
Security severity:
Severity: warning
Precision: very-high
Tags:
- quality
- reliability
- correctness
- external/cwe/cwe-783
Query suites:
- java-security-and-quality.qls
Click to see the query in the CodeQL repository
Nested expressions where the spacing around operators suggests a different grouping than that imposed by the Java operator precedence rules are problematic: they could indicate a bug where the author of the code misunderstood the precedence rules. Even if there is no a bug, the spacing could be confusing to people who read the code.
Recommendation¶
Make sure that the spacing around operators reflects operator precedence, or use parentheses to clarify grouping.
Example¶
Consider the following piece of code for allocating an array:
int[] buf = new int[capacity + capacity>>1];
Here, the spacing around + and >> suggests the grouping capacity + (capacity>>1), that is, the allocated array should be 50% larger than the given capacity.
In fact, however, + has higher precedence than >>, so this code allocates an array of size (capacity + capacity) >> 1, which is the same as capacity.
References¶
J. Bloch and N. Gafter, Java Puzzlers: Traps, Pitfalls, and Corner Cases, Puzzle 35. Addison-Wesley, 2005.
Common Weakness Enumeration: CWE-783.