#1233 UnusedPrivateMethod: False positive : method called on returned object.

[Jesper Damkjaer]

When calling a method on the returned object from a private method I get a false positive from PMD, but only if the called method takes parameters.

I have searched the existing issues, but could not see anyone adressing this exact problem.

Example:

~~~~~~~~~
import java.util.Locale;

public class Test {

public static void main(String args[]) {
    Test t = new Test();
    t.baz();
}

// Here we call both foo() and bar()
public void baz() {
    foo().toLowerCase(Locale.US);
    bar().toLowerCase();
}

private String foo() {
    return "Hello World";
}

private String bar() {
    return "Hello World";
}

}
~~~~~~~~

In the above example PMD will tell me that foo() is an unused private method, but bar() is accepted.

This might be known behaviour, but it was surprising to me.

[Andreas Dangel]

Thanks for the bug report. This will be fixed with the next (5.1.3) version.