Line coverage vs branch coverage metrics in quality gate

SonarCloud
1

I see from this page - Test Coverage & Execution | SonarQube Docs
that coverage is calculated as follows:

Coverage = (CT + CF + LC)/(2*B + EL)
where
CT = conditions that have been evaluated to ‘true’ at least once
CF = conditions that have been evaluated to ‘false’ at least once
LC = covered lines = lines_to_cover - uncovered_lines
B = total number of conditions
EL = total number of executable lines (lines_to_cover)

Is there a reason beyond simplicity for having a single metric?

Wouldn’t separate targets for line and branch coverage make more sense?
For example I might set a gate with 100% line coverage and 60% branch coverage (given various hidden branches generated by C++ compilers).

3

Hi,

You can certainly set Quality Gate criteria on those metrics individually if you like. Although I would counsel against a 100% requirement on anything. The default we provide is what has historically worked for us.

 
HTH,
Ann