5 Best Static Code Analyzers To Improve Your Code Quality

Reading through lines of code to try and find a bug is both time-intensive and tedious.

Imagine that you could find bugs and security vulnerabilities and improve the code quality of your source code before uploading it to production.

You can enhance your software development using static code analyzers that instantly help you in your code analysis process.

They identify any potential issues in the most efficient way possible to ensure reliability and security for your code.

In this guide, you will learn about five feature-rich tools that can help you perform static code analysis efficiently.

Codiga

Codiga is one of the fastest-growing static code analyzers. It supports several IDEs, custom code analysis rules, instant real-time feedback, CI/CD, multiple languages, vulnerabilities detector, Git hook, and more.

It can spot issues in various programming languages, including Java, Python, and C++. In addition, it has a user-friendly interface that you can easily integrate into the development workflow.

Vulnerabilities Detector

Codiga's vulnerabilities detector can be a great help in coding as it helps to identify weaknesses and gaps in the code.

It can detect code quality and security. It suggests fixes for code breaches before attackers exploit them. It can also spot issues in coding practices, which can lead to bugs or other software errors.

Additionally, it can provide detailed information about vulnerabilities like Mitre CWE, SANS, and OWASP top 10.

It can even show you the affected libraries and source code lines. As a result, Codiga helps developers use more secure coding practices and build better applications with fewer security issues.

Git Hooks

Git hooks allow developers to examine their code before pushing it.

Codiga can analyze and alert any mistakes made in the new code. You can rectify any issues before pushing the code into the specified branch.

It reduces the time spent on code examination and eliminates redundant work.

Code Metrics

Code metrics can be a powerful tool for helping to clean up and improve the quality of a code base.

Metrics such as duplicate code alerts and complex/extended function identifications are super helpful. Codiga can give instant feedback about these metrics inside your favorite supported IDEs.

Dependency Scanning

Codiga is wise to tell you about your code dependencies.

As more and more libraries are coming, developer depends on third-party packages.

Sometimes few dependencies could lead to potential security issues when the library is outdated or not upgraded. So, Codiga returns three statuses if the library is ok, outdated, or needs upgrading.

Supported Platforms:

Codiga's static code analysis works with the following:

• IDEs: Visual Studio Code, JetBrains, Visual Studio
• Platforms: GitHub, Gitlab, and Bitbucket

It has many other features like:

• Security analysis.
• Automated code reviews.
• Code snippets manager.
• Code standards score.

SonarQube

SonarQube is a comprehensive code quality platform that helps developers and DevOps teams proactively monitor source code quality and track their technical debt.

You can use it to detect bugs, vulnerabilities, code smells, and other coding issues.

Highlighted features:

• Built-in rules for Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, C#, and more.
• Automate test coverage analysis.
• Extensive library of custom rules.
• Code style Checker.
• Code review assistance.
• Support for CI/CD.

It's a feature-rich but more advanced static tool that is also hard to configure. Although it has free and paid plans, the paid plans are super expensive, with restricted features in each plan.

Snyk Code

Synk Code is a great static analysis tool. It can detect vulnerabilities, identify problematic patterns, and provide real-time security guidance.

It also offers automated code review and compliance checks that can you can change to meet the specific needs of any organization or application.

It is easy to set up and integrate seamlessly with existing development tools such as IDEs and build systems.

Highlighted features:

• Discover and secure vulnerable dependencies in your code.
• Use the visual dashboard to keep track of your open-source dependencies.
• Automatically install any new updates to your dependencies.
• It keeps you up to date with the latest issues in your code.
• Configure security policies for your source code.
• See the history of vulnerabilities found in your dependencies.
• Open source code analysis.

Overall, it's a robust code analysis solution but lacks features like a code snippets manager.

Klocwork

Klocwork is a static analyzer that can help diagnose potential security breaches, coding errors, and compliance issues in software.

You can configure it to scan source code files for specific coding standards, such as the CWE, OWASP, CERT, PCI DSS, and DISA STIG. In addition, Klocwork can be used to scan for potential memory leaks, SQL injections, vulnerable coding practices, and buffer overflows.

Highlighted features:

• CI/CD pipelines.
• Automated security testing.
• Detect Resource leaks and uncaught exceptions.
• Collaboration and Reporting.
• Custom Rules.

It's a great tool but needs to be improved in its features. You can not consider it a complete solution because there are missing features, automated code review, snippets manager, dedicated dependency detector, and so on.

Coverity

Coverity is a code analysis tool that helps organizations identify and fix security, quality, reliability, and performance issues in their source code.

First, it scans source code for defects like coding flaws, memory leaks, and data races. Then, it provides detailed reports with recommendations for how to fix the issues.

Coverity also offers program analysis to ensure compliance with coding standards and industry best practices.

Additionally, it can help detect vulnerabilities in third-party libraries used in applications.

Highlighted features:

• Automated testing.
• Provide early feedback with code quality metrics.
• Architecture analysis by managing code complexities.
• Trace the effects of one component to another.
• Comprehensive reporting of bugs and security.

Conclusion

Static code analysis is essential to the software development process. Using tools like those mentioned above, developers can catch potential issues before they become significant problems.

Whether you're working on a small project or a large enterprise application, static code analyzers help you ensure the quality of your code.

FAQs

At which stage static code analysis is performed?

Static code analysis is typically performed during the development stage before the code is deployed. However, it can also be used in production environments to detect potential bugs and security vulnerabilities.

What is the difference between static and dynamic code analysis?

Static analysis is the process of analyzing source code without running it. In contrast, dynamic code analysis is running and observing an application to identify potential security vulnerabilities.