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» Writing a custom rule
<a
target="_blank"
href="https://github.com/pmd/pmd/blob/main/docs/pages/pmd/userdocs/extending/writing_java_rules.md"
class="float-right"
role="button"
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<div class="post-header">
<h1 class="post-title-main">Writing a custom rule</h1>
</div>
<div class="post-content" data-github-edit-url="https://github.com/pmd/pmd/blob/main/docs/pages/pmd/userdocs/extending/writing_java_rules.md">
<div class="summary">Learn how to write a custom rule for PMD</div>
<details id="inline-toc-details">
<summary>Table of Contents</summary>
<div id="inline-toc"><!-- empty, move TOC here when screen size too small --></div>
</details>
<div class="alert alert-info" role="alert"><i class="fas fa-info-circle"></i> <b>Note:</b> Ideally most of what is written in this document would be directly
in the Javadocs of the relevant classes. This is not the case yet.</div>
<p>This page covers the specifics of writing a rule in Java. The basic development
process is very similar to the process for XPath rules, which is described in
<a href="pmd_userdocs_extending_your_first_rule.html#rule-development-process">Your First Rule</a>.</p>
<p>Basically, you open the designer, look at the structure of the AST, and refine
your rule as you add test cases.</p>
<p>In this page we’ll talk about rules for the Java language, but the process is
very similar for other languages.</p>
<div class="alert alert-info" role="alert"><i class="fas fa-info-circle"></i> <b>Note:</b> <a href="tag_languages.html">Please find an index of language-specific documentation here</a></div>
<h2 id="basics">Basics</h2>
<p>To write a rule in Java you’ll have to:</p>
<ol>
<li>Write a Java class that implements the interface <a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/rule/Rule.html#"><code>Rule</code></a>. Each
language implementation provides a base rule class to ease your pain,
e.g. <a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-java/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/java/rule/AbstractJavaRule.html#"><code>AbstractJavaRule</code></a>.</li>
<li>Compile this class, linking it to PMD APIs (e.g. using PMD as a Maven dependency)</li>
<li>Bundle this into a JAR and add it to the execution classpath of PMD</li>
<li>Declare the rule in your ruleset XML</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="rule-execution">Rule execution</h2>
<p>Most base rule classes use a <a href="https://sourcemaking.com/design_patterns/visitor">Visitor pattern</a>
to explore the AST.</p>
<h3 id="tree-traversal">Tree traversal</h3>
<p>When a rule is applied to a file, it’s handed the root of the AST and told
to traverse all the tree to look for violations. Each rule defines a specific
<code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">visit</code> method for each type of node for of the language, which
by default just visits the children.</p>
<p>So the following rule would traverse the whole tree and do nothing:</p>
<div class="language-java highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="kd">public</span> <span class="kd">class</span> <span class="nc">MyRule</span> <span class="kd">extends</span> <span class="nc">AbstractJavaRule</span> <span class="o">{</span>
<span class="c1">// all methods are default implementations!</span>
<span class="o">}</span>
</code></pre></div></div>
<p>Generally, a rule wants to check for only some node types. In our XPath example
in <a href="pmd_userdocs_extending_your_first_rule.html">Your First Rule</a>,
we wanted to check for some <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">VariableId</code> nodes. That’s the XPath name,
but in Java, you’ll get access to the <a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-java/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/java/ast/ASTVariableId.html#"><code>ASTVariableId</code></a>
full API.</p>
<p>If you want to check for some specific node types, you can override the
corresponding <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">visit</code> method:</p>
<div class="language-java highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="kd">public</span> <span class="kd">class</span> <span class="nc">MyRule</span> <span class="kd">extends</span> <span class="nc">AbstractJavaRule</span> <span class="o">{</span>
<span class="nd">@Override</span>
<span class="kd">public</span> <span class="nc">Object</span> <span class="nf">visit</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="nc">ASTVariableId</span> <span class="n">node</span><span class="o">,</span> <span class="nc">Object</span> <span class="n">data</span><span class="o">)</span> <span class="o">{</span>
<span class="c1">// This method is called on each node of type ASTVariableId</span>
<span class="c1">// in the AST</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="o">(</span><span class="n">node</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">getType</span><span class="o">()</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="kt">short</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">class</span><span class="o">)</span> <span class="o">{</span>
<span class="c1">// reports a violation at the position of the node</span>
<span class="c1">// the "data" parameter is a context object handed to by your rule</span>
<span class="c1">// the message for the violation is the message defined in the rule declaration XML element</span>
<span class="n">asCtx</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="n">data</span><span class="o">).</span><span class="na">addViolation</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="n">node</span><span class="o">);</span>
<span class="o">}</span>
<span class="c1">// this calls back to the default implementation, which recurses further down the subtree</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="kd">super</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">visit</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="n">node</span><span class="o">,</span> <span class="n">data</span><span class="o">);</span>
<span class="o">}</span>
<span class="o">}</span>
</code></pre></div></div>
<p>The <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">super.visit(node, data)</code> call is super common in rule implementations,
because it makes the traversal continue by visiting all the descendants of the
current node.</p>
<h4 id="stopping-the-traversal">Stopping the traversal</h4>
<p>Sometimes you have checked all you needed and you’re sure that the descendants
of a node may not contain violations. In that case, you can avoid calling the
<code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">super</code> implementation and the traversal will not continue further down. This
means that your callbacks (<code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">visit</code> implementations) won’t be called on the rest
of the subtree. The siblings of the current node may be visited
recursively nevertheless.</p>
<h4 id="economic-traversal-the-rulechain">Economic traversal: the rulechain</h4>
<p>If you don’t care about the order in which the nodes are traversed (e.g. your
rule doesn’t maintain any state between visits), then you can monumentally
speed-up your rule by using the <strong>rulechain</strong>.</p>
<p>That mechanism doesn’t recurse on all the tree, instead, your rule will only be
passed the nodes it is interested in. To use the rulechain correctly:</p>
<ul>
<li>Your rule must override the method <a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/rule/AbstractRule.html#buildTargetSelector()"><code>buildTargetSelector</code></a>. This method
should return a target selector, that selects all the node types you are interested in. E.g. the factory
method <a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/rule/RuleTargetSelector.html#forTypes(java.lang.Class,java.lang.Class...)"><code>forTypes</code></a> can be used
to create such a selector.</li>
<li>For the Java language, there is another base class, to make it easier:
<a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-java/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/java/rule/AbstractJavaRulechainRule.html#"><code>AbstractJavaRulechainRule</code></a>. You’ll need to call the super constructor and
provide the node types you are interested in.</li>
<li>Your visit methods <strong>must not recurse!</strong> In effect, you should call never
call <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">super.visit</code> in the methods.</li>
</ul>
<h4 id="manual-ast-navigation">Manual AST navigation</h4>
<p>In Java rule implementations, you often need to navigate the AST to find the interesting nodes.
In your <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">visit</code> implementation, you can start navigating the AST from the given node.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/ast/Node.html#"><code>Node</code></a> interface provides a couple of useful methods
that return a <a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/ast/NodeStream.html#"><code>NodeStream</code></a> and can be used to query the AST:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/ast/Node.html#ancestors()"><code>ancestors</code></a></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/ast/Node.html#ancestorsOrSelf()"><code>ancestorsOrSelf</code></a></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/ast/Node.html#children()"><code>children</code></a></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/ast/Node.html#descendants()"><code>descendants</code></a></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/ast/Node.html#descendantsOrSelf()"><code>descendantsOrSelf</code></a></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/ast/Node.html#ancestors(java.lang.Class)"><code>ancestors</code></a></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/ast/Node.html#children(java.lang.Class)"><code>children</code></a></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/ast/Node.html#descendants(java.lang.Class)"><code>descendants</code></a></li>
</ul>
<p>The returned NodeStream API provides easy to use methods that follow the Java Stream API (<code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">java.util.stream</code>).</p>
<p>Example:</p>
<div class="language-java highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="nc">NodeStream</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">of</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="n">someNode</span><span class="o">)</span> <span class="c1">// the stream here is empty if the node is null</span>
<span class="o">.</span><span class="na">filterIs</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="nc">ASTVariableDeclaratorId</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">class</span><span class="o">)</span><span class="c1">// the stream here is empty if the node was not a variable declarator id</span>
<span class="o">.</span><span class="na">followingSiblings</span><span class="o">()</span> <span class="c1">// the stream here contains only the siblings, not the original node</span>
<span class="o">.</span><span class="na">filterIs</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="nc">ASTVariableInitializer</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">class</span><span class="o">)</span>
<span class="o">.</span><span class="na">children</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="nc">ASTExpression</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">class</span><span class="o">)</span>
<span class="o">.</span><span class="na">children</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="nc">ASTPrimaryExpression</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">class</span><span class="o">)</span>
<span class="o">.</span><span class="na">children</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="nc">ASTPrimaryPrefix</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">class</span><span class="o">)</span>
<span class="o">.</span><span class="na">children</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="nc">ASTLiteral</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="na">class</span><span class="o">)</span>
<span class="o">.</span><span class="na">filterMatching</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="nl">Node:</span><span class="o">:</span><span class="n">getImage</span><span class="o">,</span> <span class="s">"0"</span><span class="o">)</span>
<span class="o">.</span><span class="na">filterNot</span><span class="o">(</span><span class="nl">ASTLiteral:</span><span class="o">:</span><span class="n">isStringLiteral</span><span class="o">)</span>
<span class="o">.</span><span class="na">nonEmpty</span><span class="o">();</span> <span class="c1">// If the stream is non empty here, then all the pipeline matched</span>
</code></pre></div></div>
<p>The <a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/ast/Node.html#"><code>Node</code></a> interface provides also an alternative way to navigate the AST for convenience:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/ast/Node.html#getParent()"><code>getParent</code></a></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/ast/Node.html#getNumChildren()"><code>getNumChildren</code></a></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/ast/Node.html#getChild(int)"><code>getChild</code></a></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/ast/Node.html#getFirstChild()"><code>getFirstChild</code></a></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/ast/Node.html#getLastChild()"><code>getLastChild</code></a></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/ast/Node.html#getPreviousSibling()"><code>getPreviousSibling</code></a></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/ast/Node.html#getNextSibling()"><code>getNextSibling</code></a></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/ast/Node.html#firstChild(java.lang.Class)"><code>firstChild</code></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Depending on the AST of the language, there might also be more specific methods that can be used to
navigate. E.g. in Java there exists the method <a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-java/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/java/ast/ASTIfStatement.html#getCondition()"><code>ASTIfStatement#getCondition</code></a>
to get the condition of an If-statement.</p>
<h3 id="reporting-violations">Reporting violations</h3>
<p>In your visit method, you have access to the <a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/reporting/RuleContext.html#"><code>RuleContext</code></a> which is the entry point into
reporting back during the analysis.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/reporting/RuleContext.html#addViolation(net.sourceforge.pmd.lang.ast.Node)"><code>addViolation</code></a> reports a rule violation at
the position of the given node with the message defined in the rule declaration XML element.</li>
<li>The message defined in the rule declaration XML element might contain <strong>placeholder</strong>, such as <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">{0}</code>.
In that case, you need to call <a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/reporting/RuleContext.html#addViolation(net.sourceforge.pmd.lang.ast.Node,java.lang.Object...)"><code>addViolation</code></a>
and provide the values for the placeholders. The message is actually processed as a <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">java.text.MessageFormat</code>.</li>
<li>Sometimes a rule might want to differentiate between different cases of a violation and use different
messages. This is possible by calling the methods
<a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/reporting/RuleContext.html#addViolationWithMessage(net.sourceforge.pmd.lang.ast.Node,java.lang.String)"><code>addViolationWithMessage</code></a> or
<a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/reporting/RuleContext.html#addViolationWithMessage(net.sourceforge.pmd.lang.ast.Node,java.lang.String,java.lang.Object...)"><code>addViolationWithMessage</code></a>.
Using these methods, the message defined in the rule declaration XML element is <em>not used</em>.</li>
<li>Rules can be customized using properties and sometimes you want to include the actual value of a property
in the message, e.g. if the rule enforces a specific limit.
The syntax for such placeholders is: <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">${propertyName}</code>.</li>
<li>Some languages support additional placeholder variables. E.g. for Java, you can use <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">${methodName}</code> to insert
the name of the method in which the violation occurred.
See <a href="pmd_languages_java.html#violation-decorators">Java-specific features and guidance</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="execution-across-files-thread-safety-and-statefulness">Execution across files, thread-safety and statefulness</h3>
<p>When starting execution, PMD will instantiate a new instance of your rule.
If PMD is executed in multiple threads, then each thread is using its own
instance of the rule. This means, that the rule implementation <strong>does not need to care about
threading issues</strong>, as PMD makes sure, that a single instance is not used concurrently
by multiple threads.</p>
<p>However, for performance reasons, the rule instances are reused for multiple files.
This means, that the constructor of the rule is only executed once (per thread)
and the rule instance is reused. If you rely on a proper initialization of instance
properties, you can do the initialization in the <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">start</code> method of the rule
(you need to override this method).
The start method is called exactly once per file.</p>
<h3 id="using-metrics">Using metrics</h3>
<p>Some languages might support metrics.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="pmd_languages_apex.html#metrics-framework">Apex-specific features and guidance</a></li>
<li><a href="pmd_languages_java.html#metrics-framework">Java-specific features and guidance</a></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="using-symbol-table">Using symbol table</h3>
<p>Some languages might support symbol table.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="pmd_languages_java.html#symbol-table-apis">Java-specific features and guidance</a></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="using-type-resolution">Using type resolution</h3>
<p>Some languages might support type resolution.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="pmd_languages_java.html#type-resolution-apis">Java-specific features and guidance</a></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="rule-lifecycle-reference">Rule lifecycle reference</h2>
<h3 id="construction">Construction</h3>
<p>Exactly once (per thread):</p>
<ol>
<li>The rule’s no-arg constructor is called when loading the ruleset.
The rule’s constructor must define already any
<a href="pmd_userdocs_extending_defining_properties.html#for-java-rules">Property descriptors</a> the rule wants to use.</li>
<li>If the rule was included in the ruleset as a rule reference,
some properties <a href="pmd_userdocs_configuring_rules.html#rule-properties">may be overridden</a>.
If an overridden property is unknown, an error is reported.</li>
<li>Misconfigured rules are removed from the ruleset</li>
</ol>
<h3 id="execution">Execution</h3>
<p>For each thread, a deep copy of the rule is created. Each thread is given
a different set of files to analyse. Then, for each such file and for each
rule copy:</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/rule/Rule.html#start(net.sourceforge.pmd.reporting.RuleContext)"><code>start</code></a> is called once, before parsing</li>
<li><a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/rule/Rule.html#apply(net.sourceforge.pmd.lang.ast.Node,net.sourceforge.pmd.reporting.RuleContext)"><code>apply</code></a> is called with the root
of the AST. That method performs the AST traversal that ultimately calls visit methods.
It’s not called for RuleChain rules.</li>
<li><a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-core/7.8.0-SNAPSHOT/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/rule/Rule.html#end(net.sourceforge.pmd.reporting.RuleContext)"><code>end</code></a> is called when the rule is done processing
the file</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="example-projects">Example projects</h2>
<p>See <a href="https://github.com/pmd/pmd-examples">https://github.com/pmd/pmd-examples</a> for a couple of example projects, that
create custom PMD rules for different languages.</p>
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