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Magic Numbers are a Production Risk

This code insight counts one violation each time a litteral numeric constant is encountered, that is not assigned to a constant.

• interger : (0|0[xX])?[0123456789ABCDEF]+([lL]?

• decimal : ([0-9]*\.[0-9]+|[0-9]+\.)

• real : [0-9]+[eE][+-]?[0-9]+

exception 

• one digit integer
• 0.0, .0, 0.
• 1.0

Note : a constant is a variable assigned only one time in its scope. example:

PI = 3.14          # not a violation because assigned to a constant
CONST = 123 * 456  # 2 violations : the assignation is an expression (containing 2 Magics)
a = 12             # violation because assigned to a variable
if (b):
    a = b

)

Why you should care

It is recommended to use constants as default values for arguments in a function or method. This is cleaner, easier to read and there's only one place to modify. Make sure, you document your constant, to explain where the value comes from. Highlight : Avoid litteral numeric constants.

Business Impacts

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CAST recommendations

References

https://www.quantifiedcode.com/knowledge-base/maintainability/Use%20constants%20as%20default%20values%20for%20arguments/24kTDwfL [nz_btn text="See features" link="http://casthighlight.wpengine.com/outputs-analytics/" target="_self" icon="icon-stats" animate="false" animation_type="ghost" color="black" size="small" shape="rounded" type="normal" hover_normal="fill" hover_ghost="fill"][nz_btn text="How it works" link="http://casthighlight.wpengine.com/how-it-works/" target="_self" icon="icon-cog" animate="false" animation_type="ghost" color="black" size="small" shape="rounded" type="ghost" hover_normal="fill" hover_ghost="fill"]