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Comparison is constant

ID: cs/constant-comparison
Kind: problem
Security severity: 
Severity: warning
Precision: high
Tags:
   - correctness
Query suites:
   - csharp-security-and-quality.qls

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Comparisons which always yield the same result are unnecessary and may indicate a bug in the logic. This can happen when the data type of one of the operands has a limited range of values. For example unsigned integers are always greater than or equal to zero, and byte values are always less than 256.

The following expressions always have the same result:

  • Unsigned < 0 is always false,

  • 0 > Unsigned is always false,

  • 0 &le; Unsigned is always true,

  • Unsigned &ge; 0 is always true,

  • Unsigned == -1 is always false,

  • Byte < 512 is always true.

Recommendation

Examine the logic of the program to determine whether the comparison is necessary. Either change the data types, or remove the unnecessary code.

Example

The following example attempts to count down from numberOfOrders to 0, however the loop never terminates because order is an unsigned integer and so the condition order >= 0 is always true.

    for (uint order = numberOfOrders; order >= 0; order--)
      ProcessOrder(order);

The solution is to change the type of the variable order.

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