MissingJavadocMethod

Since Checkstyle 8.21

Description

Checks for missing Javadoc comments for a method or constructor. The scope to verify is specified using the Scope class and defaults to Scope.PUBLIC. To verify another scope, set property scope to a different scope.

Javadoc is not required on a method that is tagged with the @Override annotation. However, under Java 5 it is not possible to mark a method required for an interface (this was corrected under Java 6). Hence, Checkstyle supports using the convention of using a single {@inheritDoc} tag instead of all the other tags.

For getters and setters for the property allowMissingPropertyJavadoc, the methods must match exactly the structures below. 

public void setNumber(final int number)
{
    mNumber = number;
}

public int getNumber()
{
    return mNumber;
}

public boolean isSomething()
{
    return false;
}

Properties

name description type default value since
allowMissingPropertyJavadoc Control whether to allow missing Javadoc on accessor methods for properties (setters and getters). boolean false 8.21
allowedAnnotations Configure annotations that allow missed documentation. String[] Override 8.21
excludeScope Specify the visibility scope where Javadoc comments are not checked. Scope null 8.21
ignoreMethodNamesRegex Ignore method whose names are matching specified regex. Pattern null 8.21
minLineCount Control the minimal amount of lines in method to allow no documentation. int -1 8.21
scope Specify the visibility scope where Javadoc comments are checked. Scope public 8.21
tokens tokens to check subset of tokens METHOD_DEF , CTOR_DEF , ANNOTATION_FIELD_DEF , COMPACT_CTOR_DEF . METHOD_DEF , CTOR_DEF , ANNOTATION_FIELD_DEF , COMPACT_CTOR_DEF . 8.21

Examples

To configure the default check: 

<module name="Checker">
  <module name="TreeWalker">
    <module name="MissingJavadocMethod"/>
  </module>
</module>

Example: 

public class Test {
  public Test() {} // violation, missing javadoc for constructor
  public void test() {} // violation, missing javadoc for method
  /**
   * Some description here.
   */
  public void test2() {} // OK

  @Override
  public String toString() { // OK
    return "Some string";
  }

  private void test1() {} // OK
  protected void test2() {} // OK
  void test3() {} // OK
}

To configure the check for private scope: 

<module name="Checker">
  <module name="TreeWalker">
    <module name="MissingJavadocMethod">
      <property name="scope" value="private"/>
    </module>
  </module>
</module>

Example:

public class Test {
  private void test1() {} // violation, the private method is missing javadoc
}

To configure the check for methods which are in private, but not in protected scope: 

<module name="Checker">
  <module name="TreeWalker">
    <module name="MissingJavadocMethod">
      <property name="scope" value="private"/>
      <property name="excludeScope" value="protected"/>
    </module>
  </module>
</module>

Example:

public class Test {
  private void test1() {} // violation, the private method is missing javadoc
  /**
   * Some description here
   */
  private void test1() {} // OK
  protected void test2() {} // OK
}

To configure the check for ignoring methods named foo(),foo1(),foo2(), etc.: 

<module name="Checker">
  <module name="TreeWalker">
    <module name="MissingJavadocMethod">
      <property name="ignoreMethodNamesRegex" value="^foo.*$"/>
    </module>
  </module>
</module>

Example:

public class Test {
  public void test1() {} // violation, method is missing javadoc
  public void foo() {} // OK
  public void foobar() {} // OK
}

To configure the check for ignoring missing javadoc for accessor methods: 

<module name="Checker">
  <module name="TreeWalker">
    <module name="MissingJavadocMethod">
      <property name="allowMissingPropertyJavadoc" value="true"/>
    </module>
  </module>
</module>

Example:

public class Test {
  private String text;

  public void test() {} // violation, method is missing javadoc
  public String getText() { return text; } // OK
  public void setText(String text) { this.text = text; } // OK
}

To configure the check with annotations that allow missed documentation: 

<module name="Checker">
  <module name="TreeWalker">
    <module name="MissingJavadocMethod">
      <property name="allowedAnnotations" value="Override,Deprecated"/>
    </module>
  </module>
</module>

Example:

public class Test {
  public void test() {} // violation, method is missing javadoc
  @Override
  public void test1() {} // OK
  @Deprecated
  public void test2() {} // OK
  @SuppressWarnings
  public void test3() {} // violation, method is missing javadoc
  /**
   * Some description here.
   */
  @SuppressWarnings
  public void test4() {} // OK
}

Example of Usage

Violation Messages

All messages can be customized if the default message doesn't suit you. Please see the documentation to learn how to.

Package

com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.javadoc

Parent Module

TreeWalker