Technical Size metrics

Number of Code Lines (LOC) is measured as the number of source code lines excluding comments and blank/empty lines. The algorithm used by CAST is as follows for all object types (For container type objects, the algorithm includes lines of code of children objects) identified by CAST:

• BEFORE pre-processing source code
• IGNORE binary files and 3rd party files included in application
• FOR EACH OBJECT
  • REMOVING blank lines (i.e., only LF + CR or LF or CR) 
  • REMOVING comments (can be single line comments or multi line comments)
  • COUNT remaining lines of code 

More generally, there are two contexts for LOC measurement.

• First context is Technical Sizing. In this context, source files are taken into account. More specifically, objects that are analyzed by CAST whose type inherit from the "APM Sources" category.
• Second context is Quality Measurement. In this context, Source Files, Artifacts, and specifically targeted object types are taken into account.

 It is used as a basis for several major features:

• LOC is used to validate analysis boundaries 
• LOC is also used to compare sizes between two different versions of source code
• Some quality rules relly directly on this value:  
  • E.g. Avoid XXX too many Lines of Code, etc.
  • Commented-out Code Lines/Code Lines ratio (% of LOC) ensures the absence of too much commented-out code lines within the comment lines
  • Complexity Volume (% of LoC) ensures that the volume of complex code is kept low enough
  • Copy Pasted Code (% of LOC) ensures that the volume of duplicated code is kept low enough