Code complexity is measured in different ways, however, the most commonly acclaimed metric is called “Cyclomatic complexity”. It is easy for code to become complicated. The best code is not the most complex (even though this may stroke the engineers’ ego). It’s a very basic metric and looks over the nuance of the code itself. Complexity Metrics. I define complexity of code as the amount of effort needed to understand and modify the code correctly. When you develop an algorithm by hand-writing code, you assess the readability of the code by measuring the cyclomatic complexity of the code. Using code complexity metrics to improve code quality. We discussed how to do this, the possible pitfalls and the best practices in the 10 Step KPI System book. The findings from the interviews and observations can be quantified and converted into complexity metrics. This includes both the internal complexity of a single procedure and the complexity of the data flow in and out of a procedure. With the Eclipse Metrics plugin, a developer can obtain various code metrics such as cyclomatic complexity, lines of code in method, number of statements, and number of levels in code. Cyclomatic complexity measures of the number of linearly independent paths through a program’s source code. Of course, you can still have terrible code with low complexity, or decent code with high complexity. Sometimes, it becomes so complicated that it can no longer support any significant enhancement. Defect density (e.g., number of defects per lines of code). The complexity of code considerably affects the efficiency of a software project. Cyclomatic complexity isn’t a perfect metric. See how to calculate it >> Another way to understand quality is by calculating Halstead complexity measures. Metrics of Code Complexity. I get complexity of 3 versus 6 for notNested versus nested. In such situations, the only way to further improve the code is first to reduce complexity. Complexity metrics. Also, few metrics have been shown to be of real value in determining the amount of effort needed to maintain or test code. The following metrics measure the complexity of executable code within procedures. Good, that means that code which we understand to be more complex, and which is more difficult to understand gets a higher value of the metric. The cyclomatic complexity is more in the classes/methods where there are a lot of conditional operators (e.g if..Else, while, switch statements). The following Code Metrics are available: Name Description; Maintenance Complexity: This metric is calculated as a total maintenance complexity value for all code elements in the member's implementation. Code Metrics is a set of measurements that allow developers to estimate code complexity. Complexity metrics can help in measuring quality. But, in general, it’s still quite useful for getting a … Project Metrics. Essential complexity is used in conjunction with the cyclomatic complexity metric to determine how much the code base can (or cannot) be reduced down to only a single entry and exit point during execution. Sign-up with a free plan to access Complexity KPIs as well as 28 other scorecard templates. Complexity can be exciting, but life is generally better when it’s less complex. High complexity may … Complexity KPIs. As I explain in this article, computing complexity metrics often is a highly personal task. Essentially, with cyclomatic complexity, higher numbers are “bad” and lower numbers are “good”. The cyclomatic complexity also affects other software metrics, like code maintainability index. It was introduced by Thomas McCabe in 1976, and it measures the number of linearly-independent paths through a program module. Eclipse Metrics and EclEmma plugins are used to gather the code complexity and code coverage details for the project, respectively. Metric Threshold Values Code Complexity Threshold. Code that has higher cyclomatic complexity can be more difficult to understand and maintain. The same can be said for code.