Limit Cognitive Complexity per Method

WarningMetrics & Complexity Limits#EC MAX_COGNITIVERemote Enabled

Overview

Limit cognitive complexity per procedure.

ATC Finding Message: Procedure cognitive complexity exceeds threshold

Rationale

Cognitive complexity measures how hard a procedure is to understand: every branch adds one point plus the current nesting depth, so deeply nested IFs and loops escalate quickly even when the raw branch count looks acceptable. Unlike cyclomatic complexity it rewards flat guard clauses and early exits. Keep procedures below the configured threshold and extract nested logic into well-named helper methods.

Non-Compliant

LOOP AT lt_items INTO ls_item.
  IF ls_item-active = abap_true.
    IF ls_item-amount > 0.
      IF ls_item-currency = lv_currency.
        process( ls_item ).
      ENDIF.
    ENDIF.
  ENDIF.
ENDLOOP.

Compliant

LOOP AT lt_items ASSIGNING FIELD-SYMBOL(<ls_item>).
  IF is_relevant( <ls_item> ) = abap_false.
    CONTINUE.
  ENDIF.
  process( <ls_item> ).
ENDLOOP.

Configuration & Thresholds

This check can be fine-tuned directly in the ATC Check Variant Editor (CHKV) in Eclipse ADT:

Parameter Name	Data Type	Default Value	Description & Guidance
MAX_COGNITIVE	Integer	15	Maximum allowed cognitive complexity score per procedure (default: 15)

Suppression

To suppress findings for this rule, append the pseudo-comment to the statement:

" Standard pseudo-comment:
... "#EC MAX_COGNITIVE

" SAP CI_ prefix format:
... "#EC CI_MAX_COGNITIVE

Related Rules

• Limit Cyclomatic Complexity (McCabe Complexity Metric) — #EC MAX_CYCLO_COMP
• Limit Control Flow Nesting Depth (Guard Clause Enforcement) — #EC MAX_NESTING
• Limit Boolean Expression Complexity in Conditional Statements — #EC MAX_BOOL_EXPR

Technical Details

• Native ATC Class: ZCL_SKYLINT_MAX_COGNITIVE
• Implementation File: zcl_skylint_max_cognitive.clas.abap