CA1508: Avoid dead conditional code
Property | Value |
---|---|
Rule ID | CA1508 |
Title | Avoid dead conditional code |
Category | Maintainability |
Fix is breaking or non-breaking | Non-Breaking |
Enabled by default in .NET 8 | No |
Cause
A method has conditional code that always evaluates to true
or false
at run time. This leads to dead code in the false
branch of the condition.
By default, this rule analyzes the entire codebase, but this is configurable.
Rule description
Methods can have conditional code, such as if statements, binary expressions (==
, !=
, <
, >
), null checks, etc. For example, consider the following code:
public void M(int i, int j)
{
if (i != 0)
{
return;
}
if (j != 0)
{
return;
}
// Below condition will always evaluate to 'false' as 'i' and 'j' are both '0' here.
if (i != j)
{
// Code in this 'if' branch is dead code.
// It can either be removed or refactored.
...
}
}
C# and VB compilers perform analysis of conditional checks involving compile-time constant values that always evaluate to true
or false
. This analyzer performs data flow analysis of non-constant variables to determine redundant conditional checks involving non-constant values. In the preceding code, the analyzer determines that i
and j
are both 0
for all code paths that reach i != j
check. Hence, this check will always evaluate to false
at run time. The code inside the if statement is dead code and can be removed or refactored. Similarly, the analyzer tracks nullness of variables and reports redundant null checks.
Note
This analyzer performs an expensive dataflow analysis of non-constant values. This can increase the overall compile time on certain code bases.
When to suppress warnings
It's safe to suppress a violation of this rule if you're not concerned about the maintainability of your code. It is also fine to suppress violations that are identified to be false positives. These are possible in the presence of concurrent code that can execute from multiple threads.
Suppress a warning
If you just want to suppress a single violation, add preprocessor directives to your source file to disable and then re-enable the rule.
#pragma warning disable CA1508
// The code that's violating the rule is on this line.
#pragma warning restore CA1508
To disable the rule for a file, folder, or project, set its severity to none
in the configuration file.
[*.{cs,vb}]
dotnet_diagnostic.CA1508.severity = none
For more information, see How to suppress code analysis warnings.
Configure code to analyze
Use the following options to configure which parts of your codebase to run this rule on.
You can configure these options for just this rule, for all rules it applies to, or for all rules in this category (Maintainability) that it applies to. For more information, see Code quality rule configuration options.
Exclude specific symbols
You can exclude specific symbols, such as types and methods, from analysis. For example, to specify that the rule should not run on any code within types named MyType
, add the following key-value pair to an .editorconfig file in your project:
dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.excluded_symbol_names = MyType
Allowed symbol name formats in the option value (separated by |
):
- Symbol name only (includes all symbols with the name, regardless of the containing type or namespace).
- Fully qualified names in the symbol's documentation ID format. Each symbol name requires a symbol-kind prefix, such as
M:
for methods,T:
for types, andN:
for namespaces. .ctor
for constructors and.cctor
for static constructors.
Examples:
Option Value | Summary |
---|---|
dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.excluded_symbol_names = MyType |
Matches all symbols named MyType . |
dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.excluded_symbol_names = MyType1|MyType2 |
Matches all symbols named either MyType1 or MyType2 . |
dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.excluded_symbol_names = M:NS.MyType.MyMethod(ParamType) |
Matches specific method MyMethod with the specified fully qualified signature. |
dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.excluded_symbol_names = M:NS1.MyType1.MyMethod1(ParamType)|M:NS2.MyType2.MyMethod2(ParamType) |
Matches specific methods MyMethod1 and MyMethod2 with the respective fully qualified signatures. |
Exclude specific types and their derived types
You can exclude specific types and their derived types from analysis. For example, to specify that the rule should not run on any methods within types named MyType
and their derived types, add the following key-value pair to an .editorconfig file in your project:
dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.excluded_type_names_with_derived_types = MyType
Allowed symbol name formats in the option value (separated by |
):
- Type name only (includes all types with the name, regardless of the containing type or namespace).
- Fully qualified names in the symbol's documentation ID format, with an optional
T:
prefix.
Examples:
Option Value | Summary |
---|---|
dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.excluded_type_names_with_derived_types = MyType |
Matches all types named MyType and all of their derived types. |
dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.excluded_type_names_with_derived_types = MyType1|MyType2 |
Matches all types named either MyType1 or MyType2 and all of their derived types. |
dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.excluded_type_names_with_derived_types = M:NS.MyType |
Matches specific type MyType with given fully qualified name and all of its derived types. |
dotnet_code_quality.CAXXXX.excluded_type_names_with_derived_types = M:NS1.MyType1|M:NS2.MyType2 |
Matches specific types MyType1 and MyType2 with the respective fully qualified names, and all of their derived types. |