PLOC (Physical Lines of Code) counts source lines that contain at least one code token. Pure comment lines and pure blank lines are excluded.Documentation Index
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What mehen emits
| Key | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
loc.ploc | int | Physical instruction lines. |
How it is computed
A line counts toward PLOC when the parser reports at least one non-trivia token on it. Lines that hold only whitespace, only block-comment continuation, or only line-comment text are excluded. Mixed lines (code followed by an inline comment) count as PLOC.When it is useful
- “Real code” size: PLOC strips out comments and blanks, so it is closer to what reviewers think of as the size of a file.
- Comparing comment density: pair with CLOC to compute the comment ratio
cloc / (cloc + ploc). - Maintainability inputs: PLOC is one of the inputs to the Maintainability Index.
Equivalents in other tools
| Tool | Equivalent |
|---|---|
| Sonar | ncloc (non-comment lines of code). |
cloc (CLI) | “code” column. |
| Visual Studio MI calculation | ”lines of code” input. |
References
- Park, R. E. (1992). Software Size Measurement: A Framework for Counting Source Statements. CMU/SEI-92-TR-20. SEI report.
- Sonar:
nclocin metric definitions.
See also
- LOC family — overview.
- CLOC — comment lines.
- LLOC — logical (statement) lines.