Remove redundant casts in Java

Question

I've been generifying some Java code that used lots of casts, and now most of them are redundant and unnecessary.

It could be very tedious to inspect all the usages of the code to remove them, so: are there any tools to help to identify (and remove) superfluous casts?

Your IDE should do this for you. If you're not using an IDE, why aren't you? — Alex Feinman, Aug 17 '10 at 13:20
At least there is an IDE that doesn't do this (NetBeans). And I have my reasons to use it over Eclipse (namely maven integration) for day to day work. — fortran, Aug 17 '10 at 13:28
I was having the same problem in Android Studio: Analyze > Code Cleanup — Bobby, Feb 10 '17 at 02:18

score 14 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 17 '10 at 13:17

14

This can be automatically done using Eclipse Helios. In your project, go to Properties -> Java code Style -> Clean Up. There, edit a profile, go to the "Unnecessary Code" Tab and check "Remove unnecessary casts". Then right-click your source root and klick Source-> Clean up. Job done.

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answered Aug 17 '10 at 13:17

Sylar

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wonderful! :-D I used to be an Eclipse user, but lately I've been using more NetBeans... Maybe it's about time to come back ^_^ – fortran Aug 17 '10 at 13:24
posting the answer 1 minute before also makes a difference ;-) – fortran Aug 17 '10 at 13:41
Note: It's also useful to not only configure stuff like that in the cleanup actions but also under "Save Actions" so every time you save a file some of this nice things are automatically applied. (e.g. also making parameters, etc. final if it's possible) – Johannes Wachter Aug 17 '10 at 13:43
@fortran, sounds like this worked for you; would you consider accepting it? It's not a big deal, but I was going through older questions with no accepted answer and there doesn't seem to be much more to say here. – Pops Sep 01 '10 at 17:28

score 13 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 18 '17 at 11:22

13

If you're using Android Studio it's an easy fix: Analyze > Code Cleanup

answered Feb 18 '17 at 11:22

Bobby

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same for IntelliJ (obviously) – Robin J May 18 '17 at 16:19

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 17 '10 at 13:15

In Eclipse, under "warnings and errors" you can set "Unnecessary cast or instanceof operations" to be "Warn" or "Error" rather than "Ignore". That should help you find them very quickly, although it won't clean them up for you.

But you can also set a "Save" action configured with an "Additional action" of "Remove unnecessary casts".

And you can right-click on an area of Package Explorer, select "Clean up..." and configure that with a "Remove unnecessary casts" action.

So basically this should be simple :)

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 17 '10 at 13:16

2

You should probably use a tool to analyze your Java source code for potential problems (such as unnecessary casting).

Perhaps you can try PMD: http://pmd.sourceforge.net

answered Aug 17 '10 at 13:16

Bernard

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Do abstract syntax tree contain these unnecessary casts? I inspected a class file and it seems to me that compiler optimizes them out. But I guess AST contains them yet. – pcjuzer Aug 17 '10 at 13:30

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 17 '10 at 13:16

1

If you use Eclipse, this should be fairly easy. Right click the class/package/project and select Source - Clean Up....

answered Aug 17 '10 at 13:16

musiKk

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Remove redundant casts in Java

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