PMD is an extensible multilanguage static code analyzer. It finds common programming flaws like unused variables, empty catch blocks, unnecessary object creation, and so forth. It’s mainly concerned with Java and Apex, but supports 16 other languages. It comes with 400+ built-in rules. It can be extended with custom rules. It uses JavaCC and Antlr to parse source files into abstract syntax trees (AST) and runs rules against them to find violations. Rules can be written in Java or using a XPath query.
Currently, PMD supports Java, JavaScript, Salesforce.com Apex and Visualforce, Kotlin, Swift, Modelica, PL/SQL, Apache Velocity, JSP, WSDL, Maven POM, HTML, XML and XSL. Scala is supported, but there are currently no Scala rules available.
Additionally, it includes CPD, the copy-paste-detector. CPD finds duplicated code in Coco, C/C++, C#, CSS, Dart, Fortran, Gherkin, Go, Groovy, HTML, Java, JavaScript, JSP, Julia, Kotlin, Lua, Matlab, Modelica, Objective-C, Perl, PHP, PL/SQL, Python, Ruby, Rust, Salesforce.com Apex and Visualforce, Scala, Swift, T-SQL, Typescript, Apache Velocity, WSDL, XML and XSL.
PMD features many built-in checks (in PMD lingo, rules), which are documented for each language in our Rule references. We also support an extensive API to write your own rules, which you can do either in Java or as a self-contained XPath query.
Website: github.com/pmd/pmd
Support:
Developer: InfoEther, LLC
License: BSD-style License
PMD is written in Java. Learn Java with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Java Linter Tools | |
|---|---|
| SpotBugs | Find bugs in Java code |
| PMD | Extensible cross-language static code analyzer |
| Error Prone | Catch common Java mistakes |
| NullAway | Eliminate NPEs in Java code |
| Infer | Static analysis tool for Java, C++, Objective-C, and C |
| Checkstyle | Write Java code that adheres to a coding standard |
| Checker Framework | Pluggable type-checking for Java |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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