Facing SonarQube Issue

[PriyaNair1]

Hi Everyone,

 I m running SonarQube on an my AEM project, and the rule “Methods should not have high Cognitive Complexity” (java:S3776) keeps failing for this real utility method, even after I refactored parts into private helpers:
public List<Page> filterAndSortPages(List<Page> pages, Predicate<Page> filter) {
List<Page> result = new ArrayList<>();
for (Page page : pages) {
if (page != null && page.isValid()) {
if (page.getProperties().get("status", "draft").equals("published")) {
ValueMap vm = page.getProperties();
if (vm.containsKey("priority")) {
int priority = vm.get("priority", 0);
if (priority > 5) {
result.add(page);
}
}
}
}
}
result.sort(Comparator.comparingInt(p -> p.getProperties().get("priority", 0)).reversed());
return result;
}

I tried splitting the nested ifs into private methods, but didn't help, can someone help me here?

[SantoshSai · Accepted solution]

Hi @PriyaNair1,

Can you try this?

public List<Page> filterAndSortPages(List<Page> pages, Predicate<Page> filter) {
    if (pages == null || pages.isEmpty()) {
        return Collections.emptyList();
    }

    return pages.stream()
            .filter(Objects::nonNull)
            .filter(Page::isValid)
            .filter(page -> "published".equals(page.getProperties().get("status", "draft")))
            .filter(this::isHighPriority)
            .filter(filter) // optional external filter
            .sorted(Comparator.comparingInt(p -> p.getProperties().get("priority", 0)).reversed())
            .collect(Collectors.toList());
}

private boolean isHighPriority(Page page) {
    ValueMap vm = page.getProperties();
    return vm.get("priority", 0) > 5;
}

[VishalKa5]

Hi @PriyaNair1 ,

Option A: Early Exit (continue)

Flatten logic, avoid deep nesting:

for (Page page : pages) {
if (page == null || !page.isValid()) continue;
if (!"published".equals(page.getProperties().get("status", "draft"))) continue;
if (!page.getProperties().containsKey("priority")) continue;

int priority = page.getProperties().get("priority", 0);
if (priority <= 5) continue;

result.add(page);
}

Simpler, fewer nested blocks → lower complexity.

Option B: Streams

Make conditions declarative:

return pages.stream()
.filter(Objects::nonNull)
.filter(Page::isValid)
.filter(filter)
.filter(p -> "published".equals(p.getProperties().get("status", "draft")))
.filter(p -> p.getProperties().containsKey("priority"))
.filter(p -> p.getProperties().get("priority", 0) > 5)
.sorted(Comparator.comparingInt(p -> p.getProperties().get("priority", 0)).reversed())
.toList();

No nesting, Sonar-friendly, cleaner.

Thanks & Regards,

Vishal