[Python-Dev] Static checker for common Python programming errors (original) (raw)

Terry Reedy tjreedy at udel.edu
Tue Nov 18 02:21:13 CET 2014

On 11/17/2014 9:49 AM, Stefan Bucur wrote:

I'm developing a Python static analysis tool that flags common programming errors in Python programs. The tool is meant to complement other tools like Pylint (which perform checks at lexical and syntactic level) by going deeper with the code analysis and keeping track of the possible control flow paths in the program (path-sensitive analysis).

For instance, a path-sensitive analysis detects that the following snippet of code would raise an AttributeError exception: if object is None: # If the True branch is taken, we know the object is None object.doSomething() # ... so this statement would always fail I'm writing first to the Python developers themselves to ask, in their experience, what common pitfalls in the language & its standard library such a static checker should look for. For instance, here [1] is a list of static checks for the C++ language, as part of the Clang static analyzer project.

You could also a) ask on python-list (new thread), or scan python questions on StackOverflow. Todays's example: "Why does my function return None?" Because there is no return statement. Perhaps current checkers can note that, but what about if some branches have a return and others do not? That is a likely bug.

-- Terry Jan Reedy

More information about the Python-Dev mailing list