[Question] Are heuristics used when calculating the preconditions of functions? #1901

sujin0529 · 2025-04-29T00:25:06Z

import java.lang.IllegalArgumentException;

class Obj {
        Object x;

        public Object getX() {
                return null;
        }
}

public class Main {
        public int g(int j) {
                if (j >= 10) {
                        return j + 1;
                }
                else if (j >= 5) {
                        return j;
                }
                else {
                        return 0;
                }
        }

        public int f(int i) {
                int j = g(i + 1);

                if (j == 0) {
                        throw new IllegalArgumentException();
                }
                else if (j == 6) {
                        return j;
                }


                Obj obj = new Obj();

                Object x = obj.getX();
                String str = x.toString(); // NPE
                return str.length();
        }
}

I analyzed this Java program using Infer's Pulse module.
While Pulse did not catch the NPE directly, I confirmed that it did detect the error as a latent issue.
During this process, I checked whether the precondition for function f was calculated correctly.
I found that the precondition related to the variable i in f was empty.
Because of this, I was wondering if there might be a heuristic that ignores the return value of functions that simply return a constant.
If I have misunderstood the relationship, I would appreciate it if you could let me know.

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[Question] Are heuristics used when calculating the preconditions of functions? #1901

[Question] Are heuristics used when calculating the preconditions of functions? #1901

[Question] Are heuristics used when calculating the preconditions of functions? #1901

[Question] Are heuristics used when calculating the preconditions of functions? #1901

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