Pre-release

2026-??-?? - 7.27.0-SNAPSHOT

The PMD team is pleased to announce PMD 7.27.0-SNAPSHOT.

This is a minor release.

Table Of Contents

• 🚀️ New and noteworthy
  • Updated Apex Support
  • Kotlin type-aware analysis
• 🌟️ New and Changed Rules
  • New Rules
  • Renamed Rules
  • Changed Rules
  • Deprecated Rules
• 🐛️ Fixed Issues
• 🚨️ API Changes
  • Deprecations
  • Experimental API
• ✨️ Merged pull requests
• 📦️ Dependency updates
• 📈️ Stats

🚀️ New and noteworthy

Updated Apex Support

The Apex language support has been bumped to version 67.0 (Summer '26). It supports the new
Multiline String literals.

Kotlin type-aware analysis

Kotlin now supports type-aware analysis via the auxClasspath language property (see #6677).
Resolved type names, return types, and annotation FQNs are available through
KotlinNodeTypeData for use in Java-based rules.

Note: Type data is not yet accessible in XPath rules or the PMD Rule Designer. This will be added in the next version.

🌟️ New and Changed Rules

New Rules

• The new java rule UnusedReturnValue finds method calls whose result is not used,
  although ignoring the result of these method calls is likely a mistake.
  The rule is referenced in the quickstart.xml ruleset for Java.

Renamed Rules

• The rule InstantiableUtilityClass (Java Design) was renamed from UseUtilityClass to better reflect the problem.
  The old name still works but is deprecated.

Changed Rules

• The rule CommentRequired (Java Documentation)
  has a new property packageMethodCommentRequirement. It controls whether Javadoc comments are required (or
  unwanted) for package-private methods and constructors. Previously, only public and protected methods could
  be configured (via publicMethodCommentRequirement and protectedMethodCommentRequirement). The new property
  defaults to Ignored, so existing rule configurations are unaffected.
  This was implemented in #6880.
• The rule BooleanGetMethodName (Java Codestyle) has a new property
  includeWrappedType. If set to true (default), the rule treats Boolean and boolean identical.
  If set to false, the rule follows the bean convention and treats Boolean like any other object.

Deprecated Rules

• The java rule CheckSkipResult has been deprecated for removal
  in favor of the new rule UnusedReturnValue.
• The java rule UselessPureMethodCall has been deprecated for removal
  in favor of the new rule UnusedReturnValue.

🐛️ Fixed Issues

• apex
  • #6478: [apex] Parser error when using CALENDAR_YEAR() in SOQL
  • #6887: [apex] ParseException on Summer '26 multiline string literals ('''...''')
• apex-bestpractices
  • #5904: [apex] ApexUnitTestShouldNotUseSeeAllDataTrue violation range should only be the annotation and not the entire test method
• chore
  • #6837: chore: Input 'app-id' has been deprecated with message: Use 'client-id' instead
• core
  • #1995: [core] PMD should display number of rules violated or errors found
  • #4952: [doc] Improve doc around PMDConfiguration#prependAuxclasspath #setClassloader
  • #4953: [core] Deprecate PMDConfiguration#setClassloader and #getClassloader
  • #6865: [core] Include the running PMD version in the "Unable to find referenced rule" error
  • #6913: [core] RuleSetLoader#loadFromString ignores previously configured Resource/ClassLoader
  • #6952: [core] Ruleset references are not resolved relative to the referencing ruleset
• java
  • #5041: [java] Parsing failed in ParseLock#doParse(): IndexOutOfBoundsException
  • #6768: [java] Disambiguation IllegalStateException resolving a synthesized record accessor used as a call argument alongside an anonymous class
  • #6932: [java] AssertionError when outer class is parsed before inner class with conflicting visibility
• java-bestpractices
  • #1237: [java] AbstractClassWithoutAnyMethod - Only detecting empty classes
  • #1287: [java] GuardLogStatement: False positive when using negative guard conditions
  • #2033: [jsp] NoClassAttribute rule is generating a false positive
  • #5514: [java] ExhaustiveSwitchHasDefault fails for non-exhaustive switch statements
  • #5670: [java] ExhaustiveSwitchHasDefault issue with final fields not initialized in constructor
  • #6200: [java] UnusedAssignment: False positive about the ++ unary operator
  • #6393: [java] UnusedPrivateMethod: False positive with overloaded private methods called with values returned from methods of an unresolved type
  • #6611: [java] UnnecessaryVarargsArrayCreation: false positive when removing the array creates overload ambiguity
  • #6965: [java] AbstractClassWithoutAnyMethod False Positive on derived abstract class
• java-codestyle
  • #5441: [java] UseDiamondOperator: False positive with interdependent generic vars
  • #6958: [java] BooleanGetMethodName should have the option to treat boolean wrapper type differently
  • #6274: [java] UselessParentheses: Treat parentheses around a ternary in the else-branch as clarifying, consistent with the then-branch.
  • #6651: [java] UnnecessaryImport false-positive when Javadoc {@link} references an array type
  • #6709: [java] LambdaCanBeMethodReference: False positive with array creation containing constructor call in receiver
  • #6737: [java] TooManyStaticImports: @SuppressWarnings("PMD.TooManyStaticImports") has stopped working
  • #6846: [java] VariableDeclarationUsageDistance: False positive with variables grouped at the top of a block
  • #6867: [java] UnnecessaryFullyQualifiedName: ContextedAssertionError: This should be unreachable: unknown constant ScopeInfo: MODULE_IMPORT
• java-design
  • #6714: [java] Rename UseUtilityClass to InstantiableUtilityClass
  • #6844: [java] AvoidThrowingNewInstanceOfSameException: message inconsistent with logic
  • #6881: [java] CognitiveComplexity does not count switch expressions
  • #6925: [java] ImmutableField: false positive on picocli annotated fields with default
• java-documentation
  • #6270: [java] CommentSize: Skip file header comments.
• java-errorprone
  • #2840: [java] CloseResource: False positive on mocks
  • #4623: [java] CloseResource: False positive with resource being closed in method
  • #6435: [java] UnconditionalIfStatement: False negative for negated boolean constant
  • #6547: [java] NonSerializableClass: Report non-serializable generic element/value types of collections and maps
  • #6742: [java] CloseResource: False positive when a correctly-closed resource is declared without initializer
  • #6826: [java] AssertEqualsArgumentOrder: False positive for double assertEquals
  • #6900: [java] Doub...

29-June-2026 - 7.26.0

The PMD team is pleased to announce PMD 7.26.0.

This is a minor release.

Table Of Contents

• 🚀️ New and noteworthy
  • Swift Changes
  • Updated PMD Designer
• 🌟️ New and Changed Rules
  • New Rules
  • Deprecated Rules
• 🐛️ Fixed Issues
• 🚨️ API Changes
• ✨️ Merged pull requests
• 📦️ Dependency updates
• 📈️ Stats

🚀️ New and noteworthy

Swift Changes

The Swift parser now forwards syntax errors as usual processing errors. Before it just logged any errors and
tried to move on, resulting in an incomplete AST with error nodes. As part of this change, the grammar has been
slightly improved around macro declarations, generic parameters and parameter packs.
This means that PMD might fail now on Swift files with processing errors, when it previously ran without
obvious problems. The Swift module in PMD now behaves like other modules in regard to error handling.

Updated PMD Designer

This PMD release ships a new version of the pmd-designer.
For the changes, see PMD Designer Changelog (7.19.3).

🌟️ New and Changed Rules

New Rules

• The new Java rule WrongTestAnnotation detects when test annotations from the wrong
  testing framework (JUnit 4, JUnit Jupiter, or TestNG) are used in your code, preventing tests from being silently
  skipped due to framework mismatches. This helps avoid the silent failure where tests compile but don't execute
  because the test runner doesn't recognize the annotation.
• The new Java rule AssertEqualsArgumentOrder detects assertions
  where the expected and actual arguments were swapped. This helps find assertions
  that are producing a confusing error message when they fail.
• The new Kotlin rule LocalVariableShadowsParameter detects local variable
  declarations that use the same name as a parameter of the enclosing function. This shadows the parameter
  and may lead to confusion about which value is used.
• The new Apex rule InvocableClassNoArgConstructor detects classes that use
  @InvocableVariable properties, but that don't provide a no-arg constructor. Without such a constructor,
  runtime exception occur when Salesforce Flow tries to instantiate such classes.

Deprecated Rules

• The rule UseObjectForClearerAPI was deprecated. Use ExcessiveParameterList
  instead. The old rule name still works.

🐛️ Fixed Issues

• apex
  • #6806: [apex] ANTLR runtime mismatch 4.9.1 used for code generation does not match the current runtime version 4.13.2
• apex-errorprone
  • #6793: [apex] New Rule: Invocable Classes require a no argument constructor
• apex-security
  • #2955: [apex] ApexSOQLInjection: False positive when passing local var with concatenating strings
  • #3877: [apex] ApexCRUDViolation: False positive with Lists of Objects with getSObjectType().getDescribe()
• core
  • #6764: [core] ANTLR: Report syntax errors as processing errors
• cpp
  • #6641: [cpp]: IndexOutOfBoundsException in CPD when a duplication is at end of file with UTF8-BOM
• cli
  • #6741: [cli] Designer: Fix quotes in PMD_OPENJFX_MODULE_PATH setting
• java
  • #6812: [java] Rename ASTMethodDeclaration#isOverridden() to isOverride()
• java-bestpractices
  • #6627: [java] UnusedPrivateMethod: could not handle javax.annotation
  • #6692: [java] ForLoopCanBeForeach: inconsistent detection between i += 1 and i = i + 1 update forms
  • #6736: [java] JUnitJupiterTestShouldBePackagePrivate: False negative when the only tests are in a @Nested class
  • #6782: [java] UseStandardCharsets: ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException in line 81
• java-codestyle
  • #6239: [java] UseDiamondOperator: False positive with Guice TypeLiteral
  • #6775: [java] UselessParentheses: False negative when on the right-hand side of an assignment statement
• java-design
  • #3741: [java] Deprecate UseObjectForClearerAPI
  • #6459: [java] PublicMemberInNonPublicType: False positive for main(...) methods
  • #6460: [java] PublicMemberInNonPublicType: False negative for overridden methods
  • #6814: [java] AvoidDeepNestedIfStmts: count ifs properly in else branch
• java-errorprone
  • #2846: [java] New Rule: WrongTestAnnotation
  • #5011: [java] TestClassWithoutTestCases: False positive for test classes extending a class with tests (in nested classes)
  • #6743: [java] CloseResource: False positive for closeable initialized with (T) null
  • #6781: [java] UselessPureMethodCall: False positive for Stream.forEach
• java-performance
  • #6740: [java] OptimizableToArrayCall: False positive when new T[0x0] is used instead of new T[0]
• kotlin
  • #6677: [kotlin] Add auxClasspath language property
• kotlin-bestpractices
  • #6732: [kotlin] New Rule: LocalVariableShadowsParameter
• swift
  • #6801: [swift] Report syntax errors as processing errors

🚨️ API Changes

• core
  • AntlrBaseParser has been deprecated in favor of
    AntlrBaseParserWithErrorHandling, which converts ANTLR's parsing
    errors into PMD's processing errors by default.
• java
  • ASTMethodDeclaration#isOverridden has been renamed to isOverride.
    The old name has been deprecated and will remain available until PMD 8.
    The corresponding XPath attribute @Overridden is deprecated as well. Use @Override instead.

✨️ Merged pull requests

• #6678: [kotlin] Fix #6677: Add auxClasspath language property - Peter Paul Bakker (@stokpop)
• #6703: [cpp] Fix #6641: CPD: IndexOutOfBoundsException when a duplication is at end of file with UTF8-BOM - Lukas Gräf (@lukasgraef)
• #6713: [java] New rule: AssertEqualsArgumentOrder - Zbynek Konecny (@zbynek)
• #6727: [java] Fix #6692: ForLoopCanBeForeach detect i = i + 1 update form - hyeonjune (@qwerty7878)
• #6728: chore: Fix pmd test setup - Andreas Dangel (@adangel)
• #6730: [core] RuleSetWriter: fix indent-number attribute - Andreas Dangel (@adangel)
• #6733: [kotlin] Fix #6732: Add LocalVariableShadowsParameter rule - Peter Paul Bakker (@stokpop)
• #6735: [java] Fix #2846: New Rule: WrongTestAnnotation - Sören Glimm (@UncleOwen)
• #6738: [java] Fix #6736: Add JTypeMirror.streamClasses() - Sören Glimm (@UncleOwen)
• #6741: [cli] Designer: Fix quotes in PMD_OPENJFX_MODULE_PATH setting - Philip Graf (@acanda)
• #6745: [java] Fix #6239: UseDiamondOperator: Implement heuristic for Super Type Token Pattern - Sören Glimm (@UncleOwen)
• #6748: [java] Fix #6743: CloseResource: False positive for closeable initialized with (T) null - Lukas Gräf (@lukasgraef)
• [#6761](https://github.com/pmd/pmd/p...

29-May-2026 - 7.25.0

The PMD team is pleased to announce PMD 7.25.0.

This is a minor release.

Table Of Contents

• 🚀️ New and noteworthy
  • Updated ANTLR library to 4.13.2
• 🌟️ New and Changed Rules
  • New Rules
  • Changed Rules
  • Renamed rules and properties
• 🐛️ Fixed Issues
• 🚨️ API Changes
  • Deprecations
  • Experimental API
• ✨️ Merged pull requests
• 📦️ Dependency updates
• 📈️ Stats

🚀️ New and noteworthy

Updated ANTLR library to 4.13.2

We have updated the ANTLR library (parser generator) from 4.9.3 to the latest version 4.13.2,
in order to be able to use the latest version of Apex parser library.

This is an incompatible update: In case you use custom language modules based on ANTLR, you
need to make sure to regenerate all of your lexers and parsers with the new ANTLR version.

For the ANTLR based language modules, that PMD ships (kotlin and swift and various CPD modules),
this is already done.

🌟️ New and Changed Rules

New Rules

• The new Java rule JUnitJupiterTestNoPrivateModifier find JUnit test classes and
  methods that are private. Test classes, test methods, and lifecycle methods are not required to be public,
  but they must not be private. Otherwise, they won’t be found by the test framework.
• The new Java rule UnnecessaryBlock reports blocks that are unnecessary as
  they don't introduce a new scope. This rule helps simplify code structure by identifying and flagging
  redundant blocks that can make code harder to read and may be misleading.
• The new Java rule VariableDeclarationUsageDistance flags local variables that are declared
  far from their usage, which can make code harder to read. The rule has a property maxDistance that allows to
  configure the maximum allowed distance between declaration and usage.
• The new Java rule AssertStatementInTest detects usages of assert statement in tests.
  These should be replaced by framework assertion methods such as assertEquals.
  Such methods provide better error messages and make test behave correctly when running without -ea.

Changed Rules

• The rule OnlyOneReturn has a new property allowGuardIfs. When this property is
  true, then guard ifs at the beginning of a method are allowed their return statements don't count.
• The rules UseUtilityClass and ClassNamingConventions now use the
  same definition of what a utility class is. The most significant change is, that classes with main() methods are
  no longer considered utility classes by UseUtilityClass.
• We are continuously working to improve the precision of violation reporting for various rules.
  The goal is to ensure that rules report issues on the correct line and highlight only the relevant lines.
  For example, instead of flagging an entire class declaration (including its body), we now generally report only
  the class name. For more details, see [java] Single Line Warnings #730
  and [java] Review reported locations of rules #3769. While this effort
  is still ongoing, the following Java rules have been updated in this release:
  • AbstractClassWithoutAbstractMethod
  • AbstractClassWithoutAnyMethod
  • AtLeastOneConstructor
  • AvoidDollarSigns
  • AvoidCatchingGenericException
  • AvoidSynchronizedStatement (now reports only on synchronized keyword and not the whole synchronized block)
  • ClassNamingConventions
  • ClassWithOnlyPrivateConstructorsShouldBeFinal
  • CommentDefaultAccessModifier
  • CommentRequired
  • CouplingBetweenObjects (now reports only on class identifier and not whole compilation unit anymore)
  • CyclomaticComplexity
  • DataClass
  • ExcessiveImports (now reports only on imports and not the whole compilation unit anymore)
  • ExcessiveParameterList
  • ExcessivePublicCount
  • ExhaustiveSwitchHasDefault (now reports only on switch keyword and not the whole switch block)
  • GodClass
  • ImplicitFunctionalInterface
  • JUnit5TestShouldBePackagePrivate
  • LocalHomeNamingConvention
  • LocalInterfaceSessionNamingConvention
  • MissingSerialVersionUID
  • MissingStaticMethodInNonInstantiatableClass
  • NcssCount
  • NonExhaustiveSwitch (now reports only on switch keyword and not the whole switch block)
  • NoPackage
  • PublicMemberInNonPublicType
  • ShortClassName
  • SingleMethodSingleton
  • SwitchDensity (now reports only on switch keyword and not the whole switch block)
  • TestClassWithoutTestCases
  • TooFewBranchesForSwitch (now reports only on switch keyword and not the whole switch block)
  • TooManyFields (now reports only on class identifier and not the whole class body anymore)
  • TooManyMethods (now reports only on class identifier and not the whole class body anymore)
  • TooManyStaticImports (now reports only on the first static import and not the whole compilation unit anymore)
  • UnnecessaryModifier
  • UseUtilityClass

Renamed rules and properties

• One rule and one property have been renamed to reflect the fact that they work for both JUnit 5 and 6:
  • The rule JUnitJupiterTestShouldBePackagePrivate (Java Best Practices) was re...

30-January-2026 - 7.21.0

The PMD team is pleased to announce PMD 7.21.0.

This is a minor release.

Table Of Contents

• 🚀️ New and noteworthy
  • 🚀️ New: Java 26 Support
  • Build Requirement is Java 21
  • CPD
• 🌟️ New and Changed Rules
  • New Rules
  • Changed Rules
  • Deprecated Rules
• 🐛️ Fixed Issues
• 🚨️ API Changes
  • Deprecations
• ✨️ Merged pull requests
• 📦️ Dependency updates
• 📈️ Stats

🚀️ New and noteworthy

🚀️ New: Java 26 Support

This release of PMD brings support for Java 26.

There are no new standard language features.

There is one preview language feature:

• JEP 530: Primitive Types in Patterns, instanceof, and switch (Fourth Preview)

In order to analyze a project with PMD that uses these preview language features,
you'll need to select the new language version 26-preview:

pmd check --use-version java-26-preview ...

Note: Support for Java 24 preview language features have been removed. The version "24-preview"
is no longer available.

Build Requirement is Java 21

From now on, Java 21 or newer is required to build PMD. PMD itself still remains compatible with Java 8,
so that it still can be used in a pure Java 8 environment. This allows us to use the latest
checkstyle version during the build.

CPD

• The Apex module now supports suppression through CPD-ON/CPD-OFF comment pairs. See #6417

🌟️ New and Changed Rules

New Rules

• The new Java rule PublicMemberInNonPublicType detects public members (such as methods
  or fields) within non-public types. Non-public types should not declare public members, as their effective
  visibility is limited, and using the public modifier can create confusion.
• The new Java rule UnsupportedJdkApiUsage flags the use of unsupported and non-portable
  JDK APIs, including sun.* packages, sun.misc.Unsafe, and jdk.internal.misc.Unsafe. These APIs are unstable,
  intended for internal use, and may change or be removed. The rule complements Java compiler warnings by
  highlighting such usage during code reviews and encouraging migration to official APIs like VarHandle and
  the Foreign Function & Memory API.

Changed Rules

The following rules have been changed to use a consistent implementation of enum based
rule properties:

• The property checkAddressTypes of rule AvoidUsingHardCodedIP has changed:
  • Instead of IPv4 use ipv4
  • Instead of IPv6 use ipv6
  • Instead of IPv4 mapped IPv6 use ipv4MappedIpv6
  • The old values still work, but you'll see a deprecation warning.
• The property nullCheckBranch of rule ConfusingTernary has changed:
  • Instead of Any use any
  • Instead of Then use then
  • Instead of Else use else
  • The old values still work, but you'll see a deprecation warning.
• The property typeAnnotations of rule ModifierOrder has changed:
  • Instead of ontype use onType
  • Instead of ondecl use onDecl
  • The old values still work, but you'll see a deprecation warning.
• The values of the properties of rule CommentRequired have changed:
  • Instead of Required use required
  • Instead of Ignored use ignored
  • Instead of Unwanted use unwanted
  • The old values still work, but you'll see a deprecation warning.

Deprecated Rules

• The Java rule DontImportSun has been deprecated. It is replaced by
  UnsupportedJdkApiUsage.

🐛️ Fixed Issues

• core
  • #6184: [core] Consistent implementation of enum properties
• apex
  • #6417: [apex] Support CPD suppression with "CPD-OFF" & "CPD-ON"
• apex-codestyle
  • #6349: [apex] FieldDeclarationsShouldBeAtStart: False positive with properties
• cli
  • #6290: [cli] Improve Designer start script
• java
  • #5871: [java] Support Java 26
  • #6364: [java] Parse error with yield lambda inside switch
• java-design
  • #6231: [java] New Rule: PublicMemberInNonPublicType
• java-errorprone
  • #3601: [java] InvalidLogMessageFormat: False positive when final parameter is Supplier<Throwable>
  • #5882: [java] UnconditionalIfStatement: False negative when true/false is not literal but local variable
  • #5923: [java] New Rule: Catch usages of sun.misc.Unsafe or jdk.internal.misc.Unsafe
• java-performance
  • #3857: [java] InsufficientStringBufferDeclaration: False negatives with String constants

🚨️ API Changes

Deprecations

• core
  • MetricOption#valueName: When metrics are used for (rule) properties,
    then the conventional enum mapping (from SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE to camelCase) will be used for the enum values.
    See conventionalEnumListProperty.
  • In PropertyFactory:
    • enumProperty(String, Map). Use
      conventionalEnumProperty instead.
    • enumProperty(String, Class). Use
      conventionalEnumProperty instead.
    • enumProperty(String, Class, Function). Use
      conventionalEnumProperty instead.
    • enumListProperty(String, Map). Use
      conventionalEnumListProperty instead.
    • enumListProperty(String, Class, Function). Use
      conventionalEnumListProperty instead.
• java
  • AvoidBranchingStatementAsLastInLoopRule#CHECK_FOR. This constant should
    have never been public.
  • AvoidBranchingStatementAsLastInLoopRule#CHECK_DO. This constant should
    have never been public.
  • AvoidBranchingStatementAsLastInLoopRule#CHECK_WHILE. This constant should
    have never been public.
  • <a href="https://docs.pmd-code.org/apidocs/pmd-java/7.21.0/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/java/rule...

30-December-2025 - 7.20.0

The PMD team is pleased to announce PMD 7.20.0.

This is a minor release.

Table Of Contents

• 🌟️ Changed Rules
• 🐛️ Fixed Issues
• 🚨️ API Changes
  • Experimental API
• ✨️ Merged pull requests
• 📦️ Dependency updates
• 📈️ Stats

🌟️ Changed Rules

• The Java rule OnlyOneReturn has a new property ignoredMethodNames. This property by
  default is set to compareTo and equals, thus this rule now by default allows multiple return statements
  for these methods. To restore the old behavior, simply set this property to an empty value.

🐛️ Fixed Issues

• core
  • #6330: [core] "Unable to create ValueRepresentation" when using @LiteralText (XPath)
• java
  • #6234: [java] Parser fails to parse switch expressions in super() constructor calls
  • #6299: [java] Fix grammar of switch label
• java-bestpractices
  • #4282: [java] GuardLogStatement: False positive when guard is not a direct parent
  • #6028: [java] UnusedPrivateMethod: False positive with raw type for generic method
  • #6257: [java] UnusedLocalVariable: False positive with instanceof pattern guard
  • #6291: [java] EnumComparison: False positive for any object when object.equals(null)
  • #6328: [java] UnusedLocalVariable: False positive for pattern variable in for-each without braces
• java-codestyle
  • #4257: [java] OnlyOneReturn: False positive with equals method
  • #5043: [java] LambdaCanBeMethodReference: False positive on overloaded methods
  • #6237: [java] UnnecessaryCast: ContextedRuntimeException when parsing switch expression with lambdas
  • #6279: [java] EmptyMethodInAbstractClassShouldBeAbstract: False positive for final empty methods
  • #6284: [java] UnnecessaryConstructor: False positive for JavaDoc-bearing constructor
• java-errorprone
  • #6276: [java] NullAssignment: False positive when assigning null to a final field in a constructor
  • #6343: [java] MissingStaticMethodInNonInstantiatableClass: False negative when method in nested class returns null
• java-performance
  • #4158: [java] BigIntegerInstantiation: False negative with compile-time constant
  • #4910: [java] ConsecutiveAppendsShouldReuse: False positive within if-statement without curly braces
  • #5877: [java] AvoidArrayLoops: False negative when break inside switch statement
• maintenance
  • #6230: [core] Single module snapshot build fails

🚨️ API Changes

Experimental API

• pmd-java: OverloadSelectionResult#hadSeveralApplicableOverloads

✨️ Merged pull requests

• #6262: [java] UnusedLocalVariable: fix false positive with guard in switch - Zbynek Konecny (@zbynek)
• #6285: [java] Fix #5043: FP in LambdaCanBeMethodReference when method ref would be ambiguous - Clément Fournier (@oowekyala)
• #6287: [doc] Explain how to build or pull snapshot dependencies for single module builds - Marcel (@mrclmh)
• #6288: [java] Fix #6279: EmptyMethodInAbstractClassShouldBeAbstract should ignore final methods - Marcel (@mrclmh)
• #6292: [java] Fix #6291: EnumComparison FP when comparing with null - Clément Fournier (@oowekyala)
• #6293: [java] Fix #6276: NullAssignment should not report assigning null to a final field in a constructor - Lukas Gräf (@lukasgraef)
• #6294: [java] Fix #6028: UnusedPrivateMethod FP - Clément Fournier (@oowekyala)
• #6295: [java] Fix #6237: UnnecessaryCast error with switch expr returning lambdas - Clément Fournier (@oowekyala)
• #6296: [java] Fix #4282: GuardLogStatement only detects guard methods immediately around it - Marcel (@mrclmh)
• #6299: [java] Fix grammar of switch label - Clément Fournier (@oowekyala)
• #6309: [java] Fix #4257: Allow ignoring methods in OnlyOneReturn - Marcel (@mrclmh)
• #6311: [java] Fix #6284: UnnecessaryConstructor reporting false-positive on JavaDoc-bearing constructor - Marcel (@mrclmh)
• #6313: [java] Fix #4910: if-statement triggers ConsecutiveAppendsShouldReuse - Marcel (@mrclmh)
• #6316: [java] Fix #5877: AvoidArrayLoops false-negative when break inside switch statement - Marcel (@mrclmh)
• #6342: [core] Fix #6330: Cannot access Chars attribute from XPath - Clément Fournier (@oowekyala)
• #6344: [java] Fix #6328: UnusedLocalVariable should consider pattern variable in for-each without curly braces - Mohamed Hamed (@mdhamed238)
• #6348: [jsp] Fix malformed Javadoc HTML in JspDocStyleTest - Gianmarco (@gianmarcoschifone)
• #6359: [java] Fix #6234: Parser fails to parse switch expressions in super() constructor calls - Mohamed Hamed (@mdhamed238)
• #6360: [java] Fix #4158: BigIntegerInstantiation false-negative with compile-time constant - Lukas Gräf (@lukasgraef)
• #6361: [vf] Fix invalid Javadoc syntax in VfDocStyleTest - Gianmarco (@gianmarcoschifone)
• #6363: [apex] Add sca-extra ruleset for Salesforce Apex testing - Beech Horn (@metalshark)

📦️ Dependency updates

• #6286: Bump PMD from 7.18.0 to 7.19.0
• #6300: chore(deps): bump actions/checkout from 6.0.0 to 6.0.1
• #6301: chore(deps): bump org.checkerframework:checker-qual from 3.52.0 to 3.52.1
• #6302: chore(deps): bump org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-resources-plugin from 3.3.1 to 3.4.0
• #6303: chore(deps-dev): bump net.bytebuddy:byte-buddy from 1.18.1 to 1.18.2
• #6304: chore(deps): bump com.puppycrawl.tools:checkstyle from 12.1.2 to 12.2.0
• #6305: chore(deps): bump org.sonarsource.scanner.maven:sonar-maven-plugin from 5.3.0.6276 to 5.4.0.6343
• #6306: chore(deps): bump webrick from 1.9.1 to 1.9.2 in /docs
• #6318: chore(deps): bump actions/create-github-app-token from 2.2.0 to 2.2.1
• #6319: chore(deps): bump actions/setup-java from 5.0.0 to 5.1.0
• #6320: chore(deps): bump ruby/setup-ruby from 1.268.0 to 1.269.0
• #6321: chore(deps-dev): bump net.bytebuddy:byte-buddy-agent from 1.18.1 to 1.18.2
• #6323: chore(deps): bump com.google.protobuf:protobuf-java from 4.33.1 to 4.33.2
• #6324: chore(deps): bump io.github.apex-dev-tools:apex-ls_2.13 from 6.0.1 to 6.0.2
• #6325: chore(deps): bump org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-assembly-plugin from 3.7.1 to 3.8.0
• #6329: chore(deps): bump org.mozilla:rhino from 1.7.15 to 1.7.15.1
• #6331: chore(deps): bump actions/upload-artifact from 5.0.0 to 6.0.0
• #6332: chore(deps): bump org.mockito:mockito-core from 5.20.0 to 5.21.0
• #6333: chore(deps): bump actions/download-artifact from 6.0.0 to 7.0.0
• #6334: chore(deps): bump ruby/setup-ruby ...

28-November-2025 - 7.19.0

The PMD team is pleased to announce PMD 7.19.0.

This is a minor release.

Table Of Contents

• 🚀️ New and noteworthy
  • Updated PMD Designer
• 🌟️ New and Changed Rules
  • New Rules
  • Deprecated Rules
• 🐛️ Fixed Issues
• 🚨️ API Changes
  • Deprecations
• ✨️ Merged pull requests
• 📦️ Dependency updates
• 📈️ Stats

🚀️ New and noteworthy

Updated PMD Designer

This PMD release ships a new version of the pmd-designer.
For the changes, see PMD Designer Changelog (7.19.0)
and PMD Designer Changelog (7.19.1).

🌟️ New and Changed Rules

New Rules

• The new Apex rule AvoidFutureAnnotation finds usages of the @Future
  annotation. It is a legacy way to execute asynchronous Apex code. New code should implement
  the Queueable interface instead.
• The new Java rule EnumComparison finds usages of equals() on
  enum constants or values. Enums should be compared directly with == instead of equals() which
  has some advantages (e.g. static type checking at compile time).
• The new Apex rule NcssCount replaces the four rules "ExcessiveClassLength",
  "NcssConstructorCount", "NcssMethodCount", and "NcssTypeCount". The new rule uses the metrics framework
  to achieve the same. It has two properties, to define the report level for method and class sizes separately.
  Constructors and methods are considered the same.
  The rule has been added to the quickstart ruleset.
  Note: The new metric is implemented more correct than in the old rules. E.g. it considers now also
  switch statements and correctly counts if-statements only once and ignores method calls that are
  part of an expression and not a statement on their own. This leads to different numbers. Keep in mind,
  that NCSS counts statements and not lines of code. Statements that are split on multiple lines are
  still counted as one.
• The new PL/SQL rule NcssCount replaces the rules "ExcessiveMethodLength",
  "ExcessiveObjectLength", "ExcessivePackageBodyLength", "ExcessivePackageSpecificationLength",
  "ExcessiveTypeLength", "NcssMethodCount" and "NcssObjectCount". The new rule uses the metrics framework
  to achieve the same. It has two properties, to define the report level for method and object sizes separately.
  Note: the new metric is implemented more correct than in the old rules, so that the actual numbers of
  the NCSS metric from the old rules might be different from the new rule "NcssCount". Statements that are
  split on multiple lines are still counted as one.

Deprecated Rules

• The Apex rule ExcessiveClassLength has been deprecated. Use NcssCount to
  find big classes or create a custom XPath based rule using
  //ApexFile[UserClass][@EndLine - @BeginLine > 1000].
• The Apex rules NcssConstructorCount, NcssMethodCount, and
  NcssTypeCount have been deprecated in favor or the new rule NcssCount.
• The PL/SQL rule ExcessiveMethodLength has been deprecated. Use NcssCount
  instead or create a custom XPath based rule using
  //(MethodDeclaration|ProgramUnit|TriggerTimingPointSection|TriggerUnit|TypeMethod)[@EndLine - @BeginLine > 100].
• The PL/SQL rule ExcessiveObjectLength has been deprecated. Use NcssCount
  instead or create a custom XPath based rule using
  //(PackageBody|PackageSpecification|ProgramUnit|TriggerUnit|TypeSpecification)[@EndLine - @BeginLine > 1000].
• The PL/SQL rule ExcessivePackageBodyLength has been deprecated. Use NcssCount
  instead or create a custom XPath based rule using
  //PackageBody[@EndLine - @BeginLine > 1000].
• The PL/SQL rule ExcessivePackageSpecificationLength has been deprecated. Use NcssCount
  instead or create a custom XPath based rule using
  //PackageSpecification[@EndLine - @BeginLine > 1000].
• The PL/SQL rule ExcessiveTypeLength has been deprecated. Use NcssCount
  instead or create a custom XPath based rule using
  //TypeSpecification[@EndLine - @BeginLine > 1000].
• The PL/SQL rules NcssMethodCount and NcssObjectCount have been
  deprecated in favor of the new rule NcssCount.

🐛️ Fixed Issues

• core
  • #4767: [core] Deprecate old symboltable API
• apex-bestpractices
  • #6203: [apex] New Rule: Avoid Future Annotation
• apex-design
  • #2128: [apex] Merge NCSS count rules for Apex
• java
  • #5689: [java] Members of record should be in scope in record header
  • #6256: [java] java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Invalid target type of type annotation for method or ctor type annotation: 19
• java-bestpractices
  • #5820: [java] GuardLogStatement recognizes that a string is a compile-time constant expression only if at first position
  • #6188: [java] UnitTestShouldIncludeAssert false positive when TestNG @Test.expectedException present
  • #6193: [java] New Rule: Always compare enum values with ==
• java-codestyle
  • #6053: [java] ModifierOrder false-positives with type annotations and type parameters (typeAnnotations = anywhere)
• java-errorprone
  • #4742: [java] EmptyFinalizer should not trigger if finalize method is final and class is not
  • #6072: [java] OverrideBothEqualsAndHashCodeOnComparable should not be required for record classes
  • #6092: [java] AssignmentInOperand false positive in 7.17.0 for case blocks in switch statements
  • #6096: [java] OverrideBothEqualsAndHashCodeOnComparable on class with lombok.EqualsAndHashCode annotation
  • #6199: [java] AssignmentInOperand: description of property allowIncrementDecrement is unclear
  • #6273: [java] TestClassWithoutTestCases documentation does not mention test prefixes
• java-performance
  • #4577: [java] UseArraysAsList with condition in loop
  • #5071: [java] UseArraysAsList should not warn when elements are skipped in array
• plsql-design
  • #4326: [plsql] Merge NCSS count rules for PL/SQL
• maintenance
  • #5701: [core] net.sourceforge.pmd.cpd.SourceManager has public methods

🚨️ API Changes

Deprecations

• core
  • net.sourceforge.pmd.lang.symboltable: All classes in this package are deprecated.
    The symbol table and type resolution implementation for Java has been rewritten from scratch
    for PMD 7.0.0. This package is the remains of the old symbol table API, that is only used by
    PL/SQL. For PMD 8.0.0 all these classes will be removed from pmd-core.
• apex
  • ExcessiveClassLengthRule
  • <...

31-October-2025 - 7.18.0

The PMD team is pleased to announce PMD 7.18.0.

This is a minor release.

Table Of Contents

• 🚀️ New and noteworthy
  • Build Requirement is Java 17
• 🌟️ New and Changed Rules
  • New Rules
  • Changed Rules
  • Deprecated Rules
• 🐛️ Fixed Issues
• 🚨️ API Changes
  • Deprecations
• ✨️ Merged pull requests
• 📦️ Dependency updates
• 📈️ Stats

🚀️ New and noteworthy

Build Requirement is Java 17

From now on, Java 17 or newer is required to build PMD. PMD itself still remains compatible with Java 8,
so that it still can be used in a pure Java 8 environment. This allows us to use the latest
checkstyle version during the build.

🌟️ New and Changed Rules

New Rules

• The new Java rule IdenticalConditionalBranches finds conditional statements
  that do the same thing when the condition is true and false. This is either incorrect or redundant.
• The new Java rule LabeledStatement finds labeled statements in code.
  Labels make control flow difficult to understand and should be avoided. By default, the rule allows labeled
  loops (do, while, for). But it has a property to flag also those labeled loops.
• The new Java rule UnusedLabel finds unused labels which are unnecessary and
  only make the code hard to read. This new rule will be part of the quickstart ruleset.

Changed Rules

• ConfusingTernary has a new property nullCheckBranch to control, whether null-checks
  should be allowed (the default case) or should lead to a violation.
• AvoidCatchingGenericException is now configurable with the new property
  typesThatShouldNotBeCaught.
  ⚠️ The rule has also been moved from category "Design" to category "Error Prone". If you are currently bulk-adding
  all the rules from the "Design" category into your custom ruleset, then you need to add the rule explicitly
  again (otherwise it won't be included anymore):

  <rule ref="category/java/errorprone.xml/AvoidCatchingGenericException" />

Deprecated Rules

• The Java rule AvoidCatchingNPE has been deprecated in favor of the updated rule
  AvoidCatchingGenericException, which is now configurable.
• The Java rule AvoidCatchingThrowable has been deprecated in favor of the updated rule
  AvoidCatchingGenericException, which is now configurable.

🐛️ Fixed Issues

• general
  • #4714: [core] Allow trailing commas in multivalued properties
  • #5873: [ci] Run integration test with Java 25
  • #6012: [pmd-rulesets] Rulesets should be in alphabetical order
  • #6073: [doc] Search improvements
  • #6097: [doc] Add PMD versions dropdown
  • #6098: [doc] Add a copy URL button
  • #6101: [doc] Highlight current header in TOC
  • #6149: [doc] Reproducible Build Documentation is outdated - PMD is now built using Java 17
  • #6150: [core] Reduce memory usage of CPD's MatchCollector
• apex
  • #5935: [apex] @SuppressWarnings - allow whitespace around comma when suppressing multiple rules
• apex-design
  • #6022: [apex] ExcessiveClassLength/ExcessiveParameterList include the metric in the message
• apex-documentation
  • #6189: [apex] ApexDoc rule doesn't match published Salesforce ApexDoc specification
• java
  • #4904: [java] Renderers output wrong class qualified name for nested classes
  • #6127: [java] Incorrect variable name in violation
  • #6132: [java] Implement main method launch protocol priorities
  • #6146: [java] ClassCastException: class InferenceVarSym cannot be cast to class JClassSymbol
• java-bestpractices
  • #2928: [java] New rules about labeled statements
  • #4122: [java] CheckResultSet false-positive with local variable
  • #6124: [java] UnusedLocalVariable: fix false negatives in pattern matching
  • #6169: [java] AvoidUsingHardCodedIP: violation message should mention the hard coded address
  • #6171: [java] AvoidUsingHardCodedIP: fix false positive for IPv6
• java-codestyle
  • #5919: [java] ClassNamingConventions: Include integration tests in testClassPattern by default
  • #6004: [java] Make ConfusingTernary != null configurable
  • #6029: [java] Fix UnnecessaryCast false-negative in method calls
  • #6057: [java] ModifierOrder false positive on "abstract sealed class"
  • #6079: [java] IdenticalCatchBranches: False negative for overriden method calls
  • #6123: [java] UselessParentheses FP around switch expression
  • #6131: [java] ModifierOrder: wrong enum values documented, indirectly causing xml parse errors
• java-design
  • #1499: [java] AvoidDeeplyNestedIfStmts violations can be unintentionally undetected
  • #5569: [java] ExcessivePublicCount should report number of public "things"
• java-documentation
  • #6058: [java] DanglingJavadoc FP in module-info files
  • #6103: [java] DanglingJavadoc false positive on record compact constructors
• java-errorprone
  • #5042: [java] CloseResource false-positive on Pattern Matching with instanceof
  • #5878: [java] DontUseFloatTypeForLoopIndices false-negative if variable is declared before loop
  • #6038: [java] Merge AvoidCatchingNPE and AvoidCatchingThrowable into AvoidCatchingGenericException
  • #6055: [java] UselessPureMethodCall false positive with AtomicInteger::getAndIncrement
  • #6060: [java] UselessPureMethodCall false positive on ZipInputStream::getNextEntry
  • #6075: [java] AssignmentInOperand false positive with lambda expressions
  • #6083: [java] New rule IdenticalConditionalBranches
• java-multithreading
  • #5880: [java] DoubleCheckedLocking is not detected if more than 1 assignment or more than 2 if statements
• java-performance
  • #6172: [java] InefficientEmptyStringCheck should include String#strip
• java-security
  • #6191: [java] HardCodedCryptoKey: NPE when constants from parent class are used
• plsql-design
  • #6077: [plsql] Excessive*/Ncss*Count/NPathComplexity include the metric

🚨️ API Changes

Deprecations

• java
  • The following methods have been deprecated. Due to refactoring of the internal base class, these methods are not
    used anymore and are not required to be implemented anymore:
    • ExcessiveImportsRule#isViolation
    • ExcessiveParameterListRule#isViolation
    • ExcessivePublicCountRule#isViolation

✨️ Merged pull requests

• #6021: [java] Fix #5569: Excessive...