Unreachable Code

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What is unreachable code?

Unreachable code, a part of the source code that will never be executed due to inappropriate exit points/control flow. The other kind of unreachable code is referred as dead code, although dead code might get executed but has no effect on the functionality of the system.

Example:

Below example clearly shows unreachable code and dead code differences:

Unreachable Code Side Effects:

• Unnecessary memory overheads.

• Unnecessary caching cycles which leads to performance bottlenecks.

• Documenting and Maintaining overheads.

Unreachable Code Causes:

• Programming errors while developing complex conditional branches.

• Incomplete unit testing because of which unreachable code was undetected.

• Redundant code that developer forgot to delete

• The code that might be programmatically correct but won't be executed at any point of time due to the input data that is passed to the function.