Use of integer where enum is preferred — CodeQL query help documentation
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Use of integer where enum is preferred
ID: cpp/integer-used-for-enum
Kind: problem
Security severity:
Severity: warning
Precision: medium
Tags:
- maintainability
- readability
- language-features
- external/jsf
Query suites:
- cpp-security-and-quality.qls
Click to see the query in the CodeQL repository
This rule finds switch statements that use an integer instead of an enumeration. Enumerations are preferred when dealing with a limited number of choices as they makes it easier to see if a case has been left out.
Recommendation
Use an enumeration instead of an integer to represent a limited set of choices.
Example
typedef enum {
CASE_VAL1,
CASE_VAL2
} caseVals;
void f() {
int caseVal;
//Wrong: switch statement uses an integer
switch(caseVal) {
case 1:
//...
case 0xFF:
//...
default:
//...
}
//Correct: switch statement uses enum. It is easier to see if a case
//has been left out, and that all cases are valid values
caseVals caseVal2;
switch (caseVal2) {
case CASE_VAL1:
//...
case CASE_VAL2:
//...
default:
}
}
References