How can I analyze Python code to identify problema

Question

I have a large source repository split across multiple projects. I would like to produce a report about the health of the source code, identifying problem areas that need to be addressed.

Specifically, I'd like to call out routines with a high cyclomatic complexity, identify repetition, and perhaps run some lint-like static analysis to spot suspicious (and thus likely erroneous) constructs.

How might I go about constructing such a report?

Answer 1

Pycana works like charm when you need to understand a new project!

PyCAna (Python Code Analyzer) is a fancy name for a simple code analyzer for python that creates a class diagram after executing your code.

See how it works: http://pycana.sourceforge.net/

output:

alt text http://pycana.sourceforge.net/relations.png

Answer 2

For measuring cyclomatic complexity, there's a nice tool available at traceback.org. The page also gives a good overview of how to interpret the results.

+1 for pylint. It is great at verifying adherence to coding standards (be it PEP8 or your own organization's variant), which can in the end help to reduce cyclomatic complexity.

Answer 3

Use flake8, which provides pep8, pyflakes, and cyclomatic complexity analysis in one tool

Answer 4

For static analysis there is pylint and pychecker. Personally I use pylint as it seems to be more comprehensive than pychecker.

For cyclomatic complexity you can try this perl program, or this article which introduces a python program to do the same

Answer 5

There is a tool called CloneDigger that helps you find similar code snippets.

Answer 6

Thanks to Pydev, you can integrate pylint in the Eclipse IDE really easily and get a code report each time you save a modified file.