> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mehen.ophi.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# PLOC — Physical Lines of Code

> Physical instruction lines — code lines with comments and blanks excluded.

**PLOC** (Physical Lines of Code) counts source lines that contain at least one code token. Pure
comment lines and pure blank lines are excluded.

## 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](/metrics/code/cloc) to compute the comment ratio
  `cloc / (cloc + ploc)`.
* Maintainability inputs: PLOC is one of the inputs to the
  [Maintainability Index](/metrics/code/mi).

## 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](https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/library/software-size-measurement-a-framework-for-counting-source-statements/).
* Sonar: [`ncloc` in metric definitions](https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-server/latest/user-guide/code-metrics/metrics-definition/).

## See also

* [LOC family](/metrics/code/loc) — overview.
* [CLOC](/metrics/code/cloc) — comment lines.
* [LLOC](/metrics/code/lloc) — logical (statement) lines.