Checkstyle 5.5

##### About

- Checkstyle
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##### Documentation

- Configuration
  - Property Types
- Running
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- Available Checks
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  - Class Design
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  - Duplicate Code
  - Headers
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  - Metrics
  - Miscellaneous
  - Modifiers
  - Naming Conventions
  - Regexp
  - Size Violations
  - Whitespace
- Extending Checkstyle
  - Writing checks
  - Writing filters
  - Writing listeners

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## Overview

Each of these naming modules validates identifiers for particular code elements. Valid identifiers for a naming module are specified by its `format` property. The value of `format` is a regular expression for valid identifiers. This is an example of a configuration of the `MemberName` module to ensure that member identifiers begin with `'m'`, followed by an upper case letter, and then letters and digits:

    <module name="MemberName">
      <property name="format" value="^m[A-Z][a-zA-Z0-9]*$"/>
    </module>

All naming modules belong to package `com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.naming` and are submodules of `TreeWalker`.

## Modules

module | validates identifiers for | default value of `format`
--- | --- | ---
`AbstractClassName` | `abstract` classes | `^Abstract.*$|^.*Factory$`
`ClassTypeParameterName` | class type parameters | `^[A-Z]$`
`ConstantName` | constants (`static`, `final` fields) | `^[A-Z][A-Z0-9]*(_[A-Z0-9]+)*$`
`LocalFinalVariableName` | local, `final` variables, including `catch` parameters | `^[a-z][a-zA-Z0-9]*$`
`LocalVariableName` | local, non-`final` variables, including `catch` parameters | `^[a-z][a-zA-Z0-9]*$`
`MemberName` | non-`static` fields | `^[a-z][a-zA-Z0-9]*$`
`MethodName` | methods | `^[a-z][a-zA-Z0-9]*$`
`MethodTypeParameterName` | method type parameters | `^[A-Z]$`
`PackageName` | packages | `^[a-z]+(\.[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*)*$`
`ParameterName` | parameters | `^[a-z][a-zA-Z0-9]*$`
`StaticVariableName` | `static`, non-`final` fields | `^[a-z][a-zA-Z0-9]*$`
`TypeName` | classes and interfaces | `^[A-Z][a-zA-Z0-9]*$`

## Enhancements

### LocalVariableName

Module `LocalVariableName` also has property `tokens` which can be used to control whether the check applies to variable declarations or `catch` clause parameters through tokens `VARIABLE_DEF` and `PARAMETER_DEF`. For example, the following configuration element ensures that `catch` clause parameters begin with `"e"`, followed by letters and digits:

    <module name="LocalVariableName">
        <property name="format" value="^e[a-zA-Z0-9]*$"/>
        <property name="tokens" value="PARAMETER_DEF"/>
    </module>

### TypeName

Module `TypeName` also has property `tokens` which can be used to control whether the check applies to classes or interfaces through tokens `CLASS_DEF` and `INTERFACE_DEF`. For example, the following configuration element ensures that interface names begin with `"I_"`, followed by letters and digits:

    <module name="TypeName">
        <property name="format"
                  value="^I_[a-zA-Z0-9]*$"/>
        <property name="tokens"
                  value="INTERFACE_DEF"/>
    </module>

### MethodName

Module `MethodName` also has the following properties:

name | description | type | default value
--- | --- | --- | ---

allowClassName

Controls whether to allow a method name to have the same name as the residing class name. This is not to be confused with a constructor. An easy mistake is to place a return type on a constructor declaration which turns it into a method. For example:

    class MyClass {
        public void MyClass() {} //this is a method
        public MyClass() {} //this is a constructor
    }

Boolean

`false`

### AbstractClassName

Module `AbstractClassName` also has the following properties:

name | description | type | default value
--- | --- | --- | ---
ignoreModifier | Controls whether to ignore checking for the `abstract` modifier on classes that match the name. | Boolean | `false`
ignoreName | Controls whether to ignore checking the name. Realistically only useful if using the check to identify that match name and do not have the `abstract` modifier. name. | Boolean | `false`

The following example shows how to configure the `AbstractClassName` to checks names, but ignore missing `abstract` modifiers:

    <module name="AbstractClassName">
      <property name="ignoreModifier" value="true"/>
    </module>

### ...

The modules `ConstantName`, `MemberName`, `StaticVariableName` and `TypeName` also have the following properties:

name | description | type | default value
--- | --- | --- | ---
applyToPublic | Controls whether to apply the check to public member. | Boolean | `true`
applyToProtected | Controls whether to apply the check to protected member. | Boolean | `true`
applyToPackage | Controls whether to apply the check to package-private member. | Boolean | `true`
applyToPrivate | Controls whether to apply the check to private member. | Boolean | `true`

## Notes

The default value of `format` for module `PackageName` has been chosen to match the requirements in the Java Language specification and the Sun coding conventions. However both underscores and uppercase letters are rather uncommon, so most configurations should probably assign value `^[a-z]+(\.[a-z][a-z0-9]*)*$` to `format` for module `PackageName`, as in

    <module name="PackageName">
        <property name="format"
                  value="^[a-z]+(\.[a-z][a-z0-9]*)*$"/>
    </module>