Locness Rules of Counting

Unfortunately, no standards organizations (ANSI, ISO, etc) has come up with a policy on how to count source code in any language.  So I came up with my own rules which is quite open for debate.  C++ is a vast language so I haven't included every possible way of counting.  Therefore, the program as well as this section here could (and probably would) change in the future.   So here goes....

Classes

•  A class definition along with all its modifiers and parent definitions counts as 1 LOC.  Subclasses are their own definitions so each counts as 1 LOC as well.


class a : public b, // 1 LOC for class a but not for b and c

    public c

{

    class d // 1 LOC

    {

    };

};

• A class referred in a method definition does not count as LOC.


void a::funct1()  // class a not counted

{

}

• Template, structure, union, and enum definitions are counted like classes.

Functions

• Function prototypes/declarations are counted as well as definitions.


void funct1(); // 1 LOC

 

woid funct1()  // 1 LOC

{

    int a;

}

• Arguments and intialization count as elements so they affect the element count.


void x::funct1(int a, int b) : y() // 1 function, 2 variables, 1 init

{

}

Variables

• Each variable declaration counts as a LOC even when declaring multiple variables at once.


int a;          // 1 LOC

short b, c, d;  // 3 elements

• Declaration an initialization counts as separate elements.


int a = 0;   // 2 elements

 

int b = 1, c = 2; // 2 variables, 2 initialization statements

Statements

• A statement ending with a semicolon counts as a LOC even if it spans multiple lines.
• Preprocessor directives are counted.


#define __HI__          // 1 LOC

#define __BYE__ \

    GOODBYE             // 1 LOC, continued from previous line

 

• Switch and its case labels each count as a LOC.


switch(a)       // LOC

{

case 1:         // LOC

case 2:         // LOC

   ...

 

default:        // LOC

   ...

}

• An If-Else pair counts as 1 LOC.  For nested branches, each pair is counted as 1 LOC.


if (a == 1)  // 1 LOC

    ...;

else         // not counted separately

    ...;

 

if (b == 1)           // 1 LOC

    ...

else if (b == 2)      // 1 LOC for the if

    ...

else                  // not counted separately

    ...

• Looping constructs such as the do, while, and for, count as LOCs.


do             // 1 LOC

    ...

while (true);  // not counted separately

 

 

while(true)   // 1 LOC

    ...

 

 

for(a=0;a<10;a++)   // 1 LOC

    ...
 

• Try-Catch constructs count as a LOC, however additional catch statements counts separately.

 

try            // 1 LOC

{

    ...

}

catch(int a)   // not counted separately

{

    ...

}

catch(...)     // 1 LOC

{

    ...

}

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