Duplicate Branches

java.duplicate_branches

Severity

info

Remediation Complexity

medium

Remediation Risk

low

Remediation Effort

medium

Resource

Code Smell

Language

Java

Description

Reports if/else statements where the then-block and else-block have identical source code. Identical branches mean the condition has no effect, which is almost always a copy-paste mistake.

Rationale

When both branches of a conditional execute the same code, the conditional is dead logic. This typically happens during copy-paste coding or incomplete refactoring.

// Bad -- condition has no effect
if (isAdmin) {
    return 42;
} else {
    return 42;
}

Remediation

Remove the conditional or fix the copy-paste error by implementing distinct logic in each branch.

return 42; // No need for the conditional

References

Dead code