[Allan]

Another bug in UnusedPrivateMethod
When using the following check :

on the following code :

---

// ArrayMap.java

package pkg;

import java.util.HashMap;

public class ArrayMap extends HashMap
{
public ArrayMap()
{
}
}

---

// FixedMapImpl.java

package pkg;

import java.util.Map;

public class FixedMapImpl extends ArrayMap
{
public void publicTest()
{
FixedMapImpl fmi = new FixedMapImpl();
fmi.privateTest(this);
}

private void privateTest(final Map p_map)
{
}

}

---

I get the error :
FixedMapImpl.java:14:18: Unused private method
'privateTest'.

This only seems to occur once I introduce the ArrayMap
class in the hierarchy. If I have FixedmapImpl extend
HashMap, I do not get this error.

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The check in general seems very unreliable: far too many
false positives.

I give false warnings of unused private method in just about
any case that looks like the following:

private void privateUsedMethod(Foo param) {...}

private Foo methodReturningFoo() {...}

private void callingMethod()
{
privateUsedMethod(methodReturningFoo());
}

privateUsedMethod() will be falsely reported as unused. The
workaround is to store the return value into a local
variable and pass the variable as the parameter. However,
that's a lot of work when the codebase is 3/4 million lines.

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Re. atsjewell's followup.

Checkstyle 3.4 doesn't give a false warning with

class Foo
{

private void privateUsedMethod(Foo m)
{
}

private Foo methodReturningFoo()
{
    return new Foo();
}

public void callingMethod()
{
    privateUsedMethod(methodReturningFoo());
}

}

Please provide a checkstyle version number and a concrete
example of a false warning.

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I'm not sure how to submit an example seeing as there no
link to send an attachment on this form.

However, I am using version 3.4 of the checkstyle with
version 1.6.2 beta of ant. I can not reproduce the false
positives when running checkstyle with an ANT task. :(

Using the Eclipse-Checkstyle plugin version 3.4.1 with
version 3.0 of eclipse then I can reproduce the problem. I
don't know if that makes it a problem with checkstyle or a
problem with the plugin. But unless Mr Schneider opened the
source and changed it I don't see why it would stop working
just because it's being called from a plugin.

At any rate there doesn't seem to be a log file produced
when using the eclipse plugin but I do have a screenshot on
my harddrive that shows the method be declared unused when
in fact it is being called four times in the same class. It
one example of many and they all occur under the conditions
demonstrated. I could send you the "one" file along with the
screenshot (if I knew how) but I doubt it would be much use
because by the time all the imports got resolved I'd have to
send you several thousand lines of proprietary code which
ain't gonna happen. Sorry. It's not my code to send.

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Regarding the original bug report, the error is resolved by
including pkg.ArrayMap in the classpath.

Aaron, since checkstyle works as expected with an ANT task
(and, presumably, at the command line), I think your problem
should be reported as a plugin bug.