Early Exits

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Early Exits is one of the source-code metrics Understand computes across 17+ languages — browse them in the GUI, export and track them, or script them with the Python API.

Metrics overview

Early Exits

API ID: CountEarlyExit
Languages: Any
Targets: Functions

The number of explicit exits/returns from a function excluding the final statement

Also known as Hersteller Initiative Software (HIS) RETURN metric.

Example:

    void none() { }           // CountEarlyExit = 0
    void one() { return; }    // CountEarlyExit = 0, return is the last statement
    int two(int x)
    {
      if (x > 0)
        return x;             // +1
      return -x;              // return is the last statement
    }                         // CountEarlyExit = 1

    void otherExits(int x)
    {
      if (x > 0)
        goto label;           // +1 goto counts as exit
      else
        return;               // +1

    #if 0
      return;                 // inactive code does not count
    #endif

    label:
      return;                 // return is the last statement
    }                         // CountEarlyExit = 2