March 2020
Intermediate to advanced
602 pages
18h 36m
English
Content preview from Software Engineering at Google
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Chapter 20. Static Analysis
Static analysis refers to programs analyzing source code to find potential issues such as bugs, antipatterns, and other issues that can be diagnosed without executing the program. The “static” part specifically refers to analyzing the source code instead of a running program (referred to as “dynamic” analysis). Static analysis can find bugs in programs early, before they are checked in as production code. For example, static analysis can identify constant expressions that overflow, tests that are never run, or invalid format strings in logging statements that would crash when executed.1 However, static analysis is useful for more than just finding bugs. Through static analysis at Google, we codify best practices, help keep code current to modern API versions, and prevent or reduce technical debt. Examples of these analyses include verifying that naming conventions are upheld, flagging the use of deprecated APIs, or pointing out simpler but equivalent expressions that make code easier to read. Static analysis is also an integral tool in the API deprecation process, where it can prevent backsliding during migration of the codebase to a new API (see Chapter 22). We have also found evidence that static analysis checks can educate developers and actually prevent antipatterns from entering the codebase.2
In this chapter, we’ll look at what makes effective static analysis, some of the lessons we at Google have ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.