private classes that are never used are dead code: unnecessary, inoperative code that should be removed. Cleaning out dead code
decreases the size of the maintained codebase, making it easier to understand the program and preventing bugs from being introduced.
Code examples
Noncompliant code example
public class TopLevel
{
private class Nested {...} // Noncompliant: Nested is never used
}
Compliant solution
public class TopLevel
{
void doSomething() {
Nested a = new Nested();
...
}
private class Nested {...}
}
