Why is this an issue?
An empty function is generally considered bad practice and can lead to confusion, readability, and maintenance issues. Empty functions bring no
functionality and are misleading to others as they might think the function implementation fulfills a specific and identified requirement.
There are several reasons for a function not to have a body:
- It is an unintentional omission, and should be fixed to prevent an unexpected behavior in production.
- It is not yet, or never will be, supported. In this case an exception should be thrown.
- The method is an intentionally-blank override. In this case a nested comment should explain the reason for the blank override.
Exceptions
This rule doesn’t raise an issue for empty class constructors or destructors.
How to fix it
Code examples
Noncompliant code example
void shouldNotBeEmpty() { // Noncompliant - method is empty
}
void notImplemented() { // Noncompliant - method is empty
}
void emptyOnPurpose() { // Noncompliant - method is empty
}
Compliant solution
void shouldNotBeEmpty() {
doSomething();
}
void notImplemented() {
throw std::logic_exception("notImplemented() cannot be performed because...");
}
void emptyOnPurpose() {
// comment explaining why the method is empty
}
