A function with high cyclomatic complexity can be hard to understand and maintain. Cyclomatic complexity is a software metric that measures the number of independent paths through a function. A higher cyclomatic complexity indicates that the function has more decision points and is more complex.

Functions with high cyclomatic complexity are more likely to have bugs and be harder to test. They may lead to reduced code maintainability and increased development time.

To reduce the cyclomatic complexity of a function, you can:

• Break the function into smaller, more manageable functions.
• Refactor complex logic into separate functions or classes.
• Avoid multiple return paths and deeply nested control expressions.

Bad Practice

// When `cyclomatic_complexity_threshold` is set to `low`, by default it is `high`
function getCapitalCity(countryName) {
  if (countryName === 'India') {
    return 'New Delhi'
  } else if (countryName === 'China') {
    return 'Beijing'
  } else if (countryName === 'France') {
    return 'Paris'
  } else if (countryName === 'Germany') {
    return 'Berlin'
  } else if (countryName === 'Italy') {
    return 'Rome'
  }
}

Recommended

function getCapitalCity(countryName) {
  const capitalCities = {
    India: 'New Delhi',
    China: 'Beijing',
    France: 'Paris',
    Germany: 'Berlin',
    Italy: 'Rome'
  }

  return capitalCities[countryName]
}

Issue configuration

Cyclomatic complexity threshold can be configured using the cyclomatic_complexity_threshold meta field in the .deepsource.toml config file.

Configuring this is optional. If you don't provide a value, the Analyzer will raise issues for functions with complexity higher than the default threshold, which is high(only raises for issues >25) for the JavaScript Analyzer.

Here's the mapping of the risk category to the cyclomatic complexity score to help you configure this better: