sonar-delphi
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Detect use of uninitialised memory in `finally` blocks
Prerequisites
- [X] This improvement has not already been suggested.
- [X] This improvement should not be implemented as a separate rule.
Rule to improve
VariableInitialization
Improvement description
An anti-pattern in Delphi is
try
Foo := TFoo.Create;
{more code}
finally
Foo.Free;
end;
which is problematic because if TFoo.Create
throws an exception then Foo
will be uninitialised when the finally
block is executed.
The correct version of that code is
Foo := TFoo.Create;
try
{more code}
finally
Foo.Free;
end;
but another correct version would be
Foo := nil;
try
Foo := TFoo.Create;
{more code}
finally
Foo.Free;
end;
In order to catch the issue in the first example, without creating a false positive in the last example, the rule would need to have a better understanding of control flow.
There is an endless supply of similar cases that would benefit from enhanced control flow analysis; this rule improvement isn't really about the try-finally anti-pattern specifically.
Rationale
The current variable initialisation rule is quite rudimentary and fails to catch many common cases of uninitialised memory. It's too permissive, because it has little-to-no understanding about code structure and control flow.
One of the real benefits of static analysis tools is that they can detect issues that are subtle, and only become apparent after excruciatingly evaluating all the logical paths.