Code analysis | JetBrains Rider

Code inspections

In addition to hundreds of code inspections that check general aspects of C++ code, there are some inspections that are specific to Unreal Engine projects.

UnrealHeaderTool (3 inspections)

Inspection	Default severity
UnrealHeaderTool C++ parser errors	Error
UnrealHeaderTool errors	Error
UnrealHeaderTool warnings	Warning

Build System (2 inspections)

Inspection	Default severity
Dependency for plugin is missing in project file	Warning
Module with this name does not exist	Warning

C++ (14 inspections)

Inspection	Default severity
Action with this name does not exist	Warning
Axis with this name does not exist	Warning
BlueprintCallable function can be made const	Hint
BlueprintCallable function can be made static	Hint
C++ standard library headers not found	Error
Inconsistent UE4 Naming	Hint
Inconsistent UE4 UClass Naming	Error
Non-UProperty object member can be garbage collected at any time	Warning
Objects stored in non-uproperty member can be garbage collected at any time	Warning
Specified version of the engine project is not found	Error
UFUNCTION macro call before declaration has no effect	Warning
Unreal Engine source file without predefined Unreal macros	Warning
Unreal Engine version file doesn't exist	Error
UPROPERTY macro call before declaration has no effect	Warning

UnrealHeaderTool integration

UnrealHeaderTool is a parsing and code-generation tool for Unreal Engine. In the Unreal Engine code compilation workflow, the tool parses the C++ header files, looking for Unreal related macros and metadata, and uses this to generate additional code to support the UObject system, such as reflection and networking.

JetBrains Rider provides seamless integration with UnrealHeaderTool: the first time you build the Unreal Engine project, JetBrains Rider finds the UnrealHeaderTool used for the code compilation and can then run the tool in the background as a separate process to check the file you are editing and show the same errors and warnings that you would normally see at compile time. The code analysis results are displayed right in the editor, just like other JetBrains Rider's inspections.

JetBrains Rider runs UnrealHeaderTool only on the file that is currently open, and the process is optimized to have a minimal impact on overall performance.

Watch this video for the integrated UnrealHeaderTool inspections in action:

UnrealHeaderTool inspections

UnrealHeaderTool can detect lots of different issues with your code, such as using a specific meta tag without the required reflection specifier, using the GENERATED_BODY macro in a private scope, when an invalid entity is exposed to a blueprint, and a lot more. Here are some examples:

Missing reflection specifiers on a UFUNCTION.
Using the UFUNCTION macro inside a struct.
Invalid BlueprintType enum base.

To distinguish between UnrealHeaderTool checks and JetBrains Rider’s inspections, you can look at the name of the check in square brackets, appended to the inspection message.

Configuring UnrealHeaderTool inspections

All UnrealHeaderTool inspections have corresponding configurable severity levels, which can be adjusted to meet your needs.

As with the built-in inspections, you can use the inspection context menu to quickly change the severity of an UnrealHeaderTool check, suppress it via a comment (in specific scope or globally), or find and investigate all similar issues.