What's new in Project Analyzer v9

52 code review rules added: Find new bugs in old code

Project Analyzer v9 adds 52 code review rules, pushing the total over 250 rules supported. Watch for bad mistakes and thoughtless omissions in your colleagues' code — or your own. Impress your boss by smashing sleeping bugs before they wake up. Insure your applications against future mistakes.

Find hidden flaws with new dead code rules

Project Analyzer has improved considerably in its ability to detect partially unused code. Dead code detection now finds variables and constants that appear alive, but that are not so in reality.

• "Variable users all dead." A variable seems to be in use, but the user procedures never execute. The variable is practically useless.
• "Variable readers all dead." A variable is being read and written. The reader procedures never execute. One or more writes do execute, to no benefit.
• "Variable writers all dead." A variable is being read and written. The writer procedures never execute. One or more reads do execute, though. Since the variable never gets a proper value, this can be a flaw.
• "Variable not read, writers all dead." A variable is practically unused and useless. It is never read. Write statements never execute. It looks like a leftover from previous functionality.
• "Variable not written, readers all dead." A variable is practically unused and useless. It is never assigned a value. Read statements never execute. The variable is a sleeping bug waiting to wake up and cause havoc.
• Rules similar to the above also exist for UDT fields (Type..End Type).
• "Constant users all dead." "Enum constant users all dead." A constant is referenced in the code, but the user procedures never execute. The value is effectively dead. If the value should be used, the program contains a flaw. Alternatively, this is a leftover from removed or disabled functionality.
• "Enum users all dead." An Enum is used as a data type, but the user procedures are all dead. The values in the Enum never appear at run-time. The program contains a flaw or a leftover from previous functionality.

Prevent problems with Enums, Cases and bad conditions

• "Enum missing zero value" locates incomplete Enums.
• "Enum with duplicate value" reports duplicated Enum constants.
• "Enum constant expected" warns if a number appears in place of Enum. Can be dangerous.
• "Case branch(es) missing for Enum" compares Select Case against Enum and finds unhandled Enum values.
• "Case useless" finds Case branches that never execute.
• "Case overlap" finds Case ranges partially covered by a previous Case.
• "Condition always True" (or False) reports unconditional branches and loops.

Prevent errors before they hit the user

• "Hard-coded path found" reports directory paths in the source.
• "ReDim without Dim" tells to add a Dim statement for arrays.
• "For index variable not local" warns about a potentially dangerous For..Next.
• "Octal number found" locates hard-to-read numbers (&O10 = 8).
• "Declare contains ordinal number" reports DLL Declares with the brittle "#1" syntax.
• "Cyclic recursion found" locates potential stack overflow.

Enforce consistent style

• "Data-only class found" reports classes missing any operations.
• "Dataless class found" reports classes having no internal state.
• "Write-only property found" reports a missing Property Get, or Property Get having a smaller scope than Set or Let.
• "Trailing comment found" reports end-of-line comments if you prefer full-line comments.
• "Line too long" triggers when length exceeds your preferred maximum number of characters.
• "CVDate found, use CDate" finds the old Variant function CVDate.

Watch for risky VB.NET syntax

• "Type inference used" finds where the potentially dangerous Option Infer On is in use.
• "Optional parameter in exposed procedure" verifies cross-language interoperability.
• "File with several classes or modules" demands that each file should consist of a single class or module.
• "Implicit variable" warns about an invisible variable declaration in a For statement.
• "RaiseEvent fails via constructor" warns about nasty unfired Events.
• "Multiple Return statements found" reports procedures with several exit points.
• "ReadOnly variable expected" shows which variables to mark as ReadOnly.

Enforce VB.NET class design rules

• "Shared constructor decreases performance" reports the slow Shared Sub New.
• "Parent class inherited only once" appears for classes having just one child class.
• "Shared-only class instantiated" locates unnecessary use of As New.
• "NotInheritable expected" appears for classes with only Shared members, not suitable for inheritance.
• "Interface ambiguous" appears when an Interface has two methods or properties with the same name.
• "Interface duplicated" detects superfluous use of an Interface.
• "MustInherit class missing MustOverride methods" requires abstract classes have abstract methods or properties.
• "MustInherit class inherits concrete class" requires abstract classes be on top of the class hierarchy.
• "MustOverride overrides concrete procedure" appears when a class deletes inherited functionality, not providing replacement.
• "Shared expected" finds methods and properties that could be declared Shared.

Free upgrade options

Project Analyzer v8 to v9. If you purchased Project Analyzer v8 on 1 October 2008 or later, you get a free upgrade to v9. Write us to get your free upgrade.

VBA Plug v1 to v2. If you purchased VBA Plug v1 on 1 October 2006 or later, you get a free upgrade to v2. Write us to get your free upgrade.

Add-in upgrades are free. If you have an existing add-in license (Super Project Analyzer, Project Printer, Project Graph, Project NameCheck), you can upgrade it for free. Add-in keys for v6/v7/v8 continue to work, but you need to request free new keys if you have an older version. Request add-in keys