Long Message Chain (LMC)

Description:

LMC looks for a chain of delegating methods. A delegating method does not perform any action but calls the delegate method. LMC produces a warning message if the length of such a message chain is higher than the value specified by the Max call chain length property (2, by default).

Incorrect:

List = class
    private list:ArrayList;
    public function size():integer;
end;
Buffer = class
    private list:List;
    public function size():integer;
end;
MyArray = class
    private buf:Buffer;
    public function size():integer;
end;
...
function List.size():integer;
begin
  result := list.Count;
end;
function Buffer.size():integer;
begin
  result := list.size();
end;
function MyArray.size():integer;
begin
  result := list.size();
end;

Refactoring:

• Replace Delegation with Inheritance