Analysis Details

Provide public access for every field used in the toString method

es.uniovi.reflection.analyses.bloch.3.10s

This rule detects classes that do not provide public getters to access non-public fields which are used in the java.lang.Object:toString method. More precisely, it analyzes all the toString method body and detects fields concatenated with a String expression, calling the toString method or used as arguments when calling java.lang.StringBuilder:append, java.lang.StringBuffer:append, java.lang.Appendable:append, java.lang.String:format, java.util.Formatter:format, java.lang.String:formatted, java.lang.String:join, java.lang.String:valueOf.

Computational Reflection Research Group

09-30-2026 22:23

Bad Practice

Type Declaration

MATCH (enclosingCU:ORDINARY_CU)-[:DECLARES_TYPE | HAS_NESTED_TYPE]->(typeDefinition)-[:DECLARES_FIELD]->(field:FIELD_DEC{isUserCode:true})-[:USED_BY]->(attrUse)<-[:BINARY_OP_LHS | BINARY_OP_RHS | IDENT_SELECTION_FROM | INVOCATION_ARG | COMPOUND_ASSIGNMENT_RHS]-(stringExpr)
WHERE NOT typeDefinition:RECORD_DEC AND NOT field.accessLevel='public' AND (attrUse:VARIABLE OR EXISTS((attrUse)-[:IDENT_SELECTION_FROM]->(:RESERVED_IDENTIFIER))) AND (((stringExpr:BINARY_OPERATION OR stringExpr:COMPOUND_ASSIGNMENT) AND stringExpr.operator IN ['PLUS', 'PLUS_ASSIGNMENT'] AND stringExpr.actualType='java.lang.String') OR stringExpr:METHOD_SELECTION AND stringExpr.selectedName='toString' AND stringExpr.actualType='()java.lang.String' OR stringExpr:METHOD_INVOCATION AND EXISTS{(stringExpr)-[:CALLEE]->(methodDec) WHERE methodDec.completeName IN ['java.lang.StringBuilder:append', 'java.lang.StringBuffer:append', 'java.lang.Appendable:append', 'java.lang.String:format', 'java.util.Formatter:format', 'java.lang.String:formatted', 'java.lang.String:join', 'java.lang.String:valueOf']})
WITH enclosingCU, typeDefinition, field, stringExpr, es.uniovi.reflection.codeanalysis.functions.getEnclCallableFromExpr(stringExpr) as toStringMethod WHERE toStringMethod.name='toString' AND toStringMethod.actualType='()java.lang.String' AND NOT EXISTS {MATCH (field)-[:USED_BY]->(fieldAccess)<-[:RETURN_EXPR]-()-[:CFG_NEXT]->(:CFG_NORMAL_END)-[:CFG_END_OF]->(m:METHOD_DEC{accessLevel:'public'}) OPTIONAL MATCH (fieldAccess)-[:IDENT_SELECTION_FROM]->(selectFrom) WITH selectFrom WHERE selectFrom:RESERVED_IDENTIFIER OR selectFrom IS NULL}
WITH typeDefinition, enclosingCU, apoc.text.join(COLLECT(field.name), ',') AS fields, apoc.text.join(COLLECT(stringExpr.lineNumber+''), ',') as exprLines
RETURN '{"node":"'+typeDefinition.fullyQualifiedName+'","line":"'+typeDefinition.lineNumber+'","column":"'+typeDefinition.column+'","rule":"BLOCH-3.10S","location":"'+enclosingCU.fileName+'","message":"You should provide a public getter to access the following fields ['+fields+'] in class '+ typeDefinition.fullyQualifiedName + ' in '+enclosingCU.fileName+', since they are used in the toString method - line(s) '+ exprLines + '."}'