Unused Private Method

ID

csharp.unused_private_method

Severity

low

Remediation Complexity

trivial

Remediation Risk

low

Remediation Effort

low

Resource

Code Smell

Language

CSharp

Tags

CWE:561, code-style, unused-code

Description

Reports private methods that are never called within their declaring type. A private method is only reachable from inside its own type, so a method with no call sites is dead code that can be removed.

Rationale

Dead private methods accumulate during refactors and obscure the type’s real surface. Removing them shrinks the type and removes code that no one tests or maintains. Methods carrying an attribute are excluded, because a framework may invoke them reflectively ({@code [EventHandler]}, {@code [Test]}), and partial methods are excluded because their call sites may live in another file.

public class Worker
{
    public void Run()
    {
        Step();                          // calls the helper
    }

    private void Step()                  // OK — called by Run
    {
        Log("step");
    }

    private void Log(string m) { }       // OK — called by Step

    private int Orphan()                 // FLAW — never called
    {
        return 0;
    }
}

Remediation

Delete the unused private method. If it was meant to be part of the public surface, give it the right accessibility; if a framework invokes it by reflection, add the attribute that documents that.

References