Page History

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• Reuse the name of a superclass
• Reuse the name of an interface
• Reuse the name of a field defined in a superclass
• Reuse the name of a field that appears in the same method (in some different scope)
• Reuse the name of a field, type or another parameter across packages

It is permissible to declare a label with the same name as another variable in the same scope. This is because there is no obscuration in this case \[[JLS 05|AA. Java References#JLS 05]\].

Noncompliant Code Example

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package x;
public class A {
  void doLogic() { 
    // print 'A'  
  }  

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    // explicitly invokes doSequence() of class y.C and prints 'C'
    y.C.doSequence(); 
  }
}

package x;
public class B { /* ... */ }

package y; // different package
public class C extends x.B {  
  public void doSequence() { // now renamed
    // print 'C' 
  } 
}

Exceptions

EX1: Reuse of names is permitted for trivial loop counter declarations in the same scope:

for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++) { }
for(int i = 0; i < 20; i++) { }

*EX2:* It is permissible to declare a label with the same name as another variable in the same scope. This is because there is no obscuration in this case \[[JLS 05|AA. Java References#JLS 05]\].

Risk Assessment

Reusing names leads to code that is harder to read and maintain and may result in security weaknesses.

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