Self-assignment
ID |
java.self_assignment |
Severity |
low |
Remediation Complexity |
trivial |
Remediation Risk |
low |
Remediation Effort |
low |
Resource |
Reliability |
Language |
Java |
Tags |
CWE:480, reliability, suspicious-comparison |
Description
Reports assignments where the left-hand side and right-hand side are the same expression (e.g., x = x). Such a statement has no effect and is almost always a bug.
Rationale
A self-assignment is a no-op: the value of the variable is unchanged. This pattern typically arises from a copy-paste error or a typo where the developer intended to assign from a different variable or qualify one side with this..
// Bad - no-op
void setName(String name) {
name = name; // intended: this.name = name
}Remediation
Verify the intended source and target of the assignment. Usually one side needs to be qualified with this. or the variable name needs to differ.
// Good
void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}