Code analysis
Last modified: 11 July 2022Code 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 (2 inspections)
Inspection | |
|---|---|
UnrealHeaderTool errors | |
UnrealHeaderTool warnings |
Unreal Engine (17 inspections)
Inspections in this category are specific to Unreal Engine projects.
Inspection | |
|---|---|
Action with this name does not exist | |
Axis with this name does not exist | |
BlueprintCallable function can be made const | |
BlueprintCallable function can be made static | |
BlueprintCallable function is never used in Blueprint or C++ code | |
BlueprintImplementableEvent function is not implemented in any blueprint | |
C++ standard library headers not found | |
Inconsistent Unreal Engine UCLASS Naming | |
Non-UProperty object member can be destroyed during garbage collection, resulting in a stale pointer | |
Objects stored in non-uproperty member can be destroyed during garbage collection, resulting in stale pointers | |
Specified version of the engine project is not found | |
UFUNCTION macro call has no effect | |
Unreal Engine source file without predefined Unreal macros | |
Unreal Engine version file does not exist | |
UPROPERTY macro call has no effect | |
Use of a class that has not been declared previously |
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.
tip
UnrealHeaderTool integration is enabled by default but you can disable and configure it on the Languages & Frameworks | C++ | Unreal Engine page of JetBrains Rider settings Ctrl+Alt+S.
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
UFUNCTIONmacro inside a struct.
Invalid
BlueprintTypeenum 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.
tip
These inspections may produce false positive warnings if the Unreal Engine sources are not indexed. To avoid this, make sure the Index Unreal Engine source files option is enabled on the Languages & Frameworks | C++ | Unreal Engine page of JetBrains Rider settings Ctrl+Alt+S.
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.
