fix: cognitive complexity nesting with if-else chains (#1268)

* test: prove bug in cognitive complexity rule

* fix: cognitive complexity nesting with if-else chains

Currently, an if-else chain will increase the nesting level and add the
nesting increment for every addition `else if` statement in an if-else
chain. This is incorrect behaviour; an `else if` statement should
increment complexity by 1 (regardless of current nesting level) and
leave the nesting level as-is.

For example, the following should yield a total complexity of 5:
```
for { // +1
    if a { // +2 (nesting = 1)
        foo()
    } else if b { // +1
        bar()
    } else if c { // +1
        baz()
    }
}
```

but the current implementation incorrectly increments the nesting level
with each `else if` and adds the nesting increment where it shouldn't:
```
for { // +1
    if a { // +2 (nesting = 1)
        foo()
    } else if b { // +3 (nesting = 2)
        bar()
    } else if c { // +4 (nesting = 3)
        baz()
    }
}
```

Author: AxiomaticFixedChimpanzee

rule/cognitive_complexity.go

@@ -98,8 +98,7 @@ func (v *cognitiveComplexityVisitor) subTreeComplexity(n ast.Node) int {
 func (v *cognitiveComplexityVisitor) Visit(n ast.Node) ast.Visitor {
 	switch n := n.(type) {
 	case *ast.IfStmt:
-		targets := []ast.Node{n.Cond, n.Body, n.Else}
-		v.walk(1, targets...)
+		v.walkIfElse(n)
 		return nil
 	case *ast.ForStmt:
 		targets := []ast.Node{n.Cond, n.Body}
@@ -156,6 +155,29 @@ func (v *cognitiveComplexityVisitor) walk(complexityIncrement int, targets ...as
 	v.nestingLevel = nesting
 }
 
+func (v *cognitiveComplexityVisitor) walkIfElse(n *ast.IfStmt) {
+	var w func(n *ast.IfStmt)
+	w = func(n *ast.IfStmt) {
+		ast.Walk(v, n.Cond)
+		ast.Walk(v, n.Body)
+		if n.Else != nil {
+			if elif, ok := n.Else.(*ast.IfStmt); ok {
+				v.complexity++
+				w(elif)
+			} else {
+				ast.Walk(v, n.Else)
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
+	// Nesting level is incremented in 'if' and 'else' blocks, but only the first 'if' in an 'if-else-if' chain sees its
+	// complexity increased by the nesting level.
+	v.complexity += 1 + v.nestingLevel
+	v.nestingLevel++
+	w(n)
+	v.nestingLevel--
+}
+
 func (*cognitiveComplexityVisitor) binExpComplexity(n *ast.BinaryExpr) int {
 	calculator := binExprComplexityCalculator{opsStack: []token.Token{}}
 

testdata/cognitive_complexity.go

@@ -291,3 +291,16 @@ func Walk(t *Tree, ch chan int) { // MATCH /function Walk has cognitive complexi
 	ch <- t.Value
 	Walk(t.Right, ch) // +1
 }
+
+// Test if-else if chains
+func chainedIfElse(a, b, c, d bool) { // MATCH /function chainedIfElse has cognitive complexity 4 (> max enabled 0)/
+	if a { // +1
+		foo()
+	} else if b && c { // +2
+		bar()
+	} else if d { // +1
+		baz()
+	} else {
+		qux()
+	}
+}