Avoid uncalled private code

Cause

A private or internal (assembly-level) member does not have callers in the assembly, is not invoked by the common language runtime, and the member is not invoked by a delegate. The following members are not checked by this rule:

• Explicit interface members.

• Static constructors.

• Serialization constructors.

• Methods marked with System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComRegisterFunctionAttribute or System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComUnregisterFunctionAttribute.

• Members that are overrides.

Rule Description

This rule can report false positives if there are entry points that are not currently identified by the rule logic. Also, it is possible that a compiler can emit non-callable code into an assembly.

How to Fix Violations

To fix a violation of this rule, remove the non-callable code, or add code that calls it.

When to Suppress Warnings

It is safe to suppress a warning from this rule.

Related Rules

Avoid uninstantiated internal classes

Review unused parameters

Remove unused locals

Example

This rule will report a false positive if a member is called in a preprocessor if# region.

using System;

namespace SampleNamespace
{    
    class SampleClass    
    {        
        static void Main()
        {
        }

        public void NotifyByEMail(string to) 
        {
            // ...
        }

        public void AnotherMethod() 
        {
            #if !DEBUG
                NotifyByEMail("this.that@someplace.com");
            #endif
        }
    }
}