Clarify the difference between lines of code and lines to cover

SonarQube Cloud
1

Hello,
I’m a little confused by the definition of (lines of code) and (lines to cover) on sonar documentation .
here is :
the lines of code : Number of physical lines that contain at least one character which is neither a whitespace nor a tabulation nor part of a comment.
and
lines to cover : Number of lines of code which could be covered by unit tests (for example, blank lines or full comments lines are not considered as lines to cover).

I understand that lines of code = lines to cover WHEN covered lines =0
Can anyone explain more the difference if there is any, please?

Regards,

2

Hey there.

Another way of saying “Lines to Cover” is “Executable Lines” or “Lines that can be covered by unit tests”

Consider a Java example:

package org.eclipse.jdt.core.dom;

import javax.annotation.Nullable;

Surely these are Lines of Code, but they can’t be covered by unit tests

While some logic like this can (and should) be covered by Unit Tests.

if (answer == null) {
  return NO_ANNOTATIONS;
}

The latter sample falls under “lines to cover” (well, the first two lines, not the closing bracket :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:), the former does not, but they are all “lines of code”