Limit Local Variable Count per Method

WarningMetrics & Complexity Limits#EC MAX_LOCALSRemote Enabled

Overview

Limit local variable count per procedure.

ATC Finding Message: Procedure declares too many local symbols

Rationale

A method with many local variables usually does several unrelated things at once and is hard to unit test. The count includes DATA, FIELD-SYMBOLS, STATICS and CONSTANTS declarations as well as inline DATA(...) and FIELD-SYMBOL(...) definitions, because each declared symbol is another piece of state a reader must track. Extract cohesive blocks into helper methods or introduce a dedicated result structure.

Non-Compliant

METHOD process.
  DATA lv_a TYPE i.
  DATA lv_b TYPE i.
  DATA lv_c TYPE i.
  DATA lv_d TYPE i.
  DATA lv_e TYPE i.
ENDMETHOD.

Compliant

METHOD process.
  DATA ls_totals TYPE ty_totals.
  ls_totals = calculate_totals( ).
  persist_totals( ls_totals ).
ENDMETHOD.

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_LOCALS	Integer	15	Maximum allowed number of local declarations per procedure (default: 15)

Suppression

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

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

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

Related Rules

• Eliminate Unused Local Variables and Symbols — #EC NO_UNUSED_VARS
• Limit Class Member Attribute Count (Prevent God Classes) — #EC MAX_ATTRIBUTES
• Limit Method and Constructor Statement Length — #EC MAX_METHOD_LEN

Technical Details

• Native ATC Class: ZCL_SKYLINT_MAX_LOCALS
• Implementation File: zcl_skylint_max_locals.clas.abap