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Regression Tester Report

(comment created at 2026-03-31 06:54:35+00:00 for 79e8fd2)

While finishing up #6084, I have now an idea what we need.
The workaround I used currently for a missing feature is this: I place every token on a separate line to be sure, which part exactly is reported.
It would be better, if we would verify in our rule tests the exact location (including columns) and not only the line numbers.

According to https://docs.pmd-code.org/latest/pmd_userdocs_extending_testing.html#test-xml-reference a test case looks currently like this:

    <test-code>
        <description>Verify location of violation</description>
        <expected-problems>1</expected-problems>
        <expected-linenumbers>2-2</expected-linenumbers>
        <code><![CDATA[
public class
Foo // <--violation: line 2
{}
        ]]></code>
    </test-code>

What about this way?

    <test-code>
        <description>Verify location of violation</description>
        <expected-violations>
          <violation loc="1:14-1:17">optional message</violation>
        </expected-violations>
        <code><![CDATA[
public class Foo {}
        ]]></code>
    </test-code>

@zbynek WDYT?

@adangel I'm not sure the columns are needed -- for rules where multiple violations may realistically happen on the same line, it would make sense to include the violating token in the message. But having an option to use columns may be useful.

Also an idea that PMD could borrow from Checkstyle is using comment markers to indicate expected violations. For backward compatibility this could be something like

  <test-code>
        <description>Verify location of violation</description>
        <expected-problem-marker>pmd-violation</expected-problem-marker>
        <code><![CDATA[
public class
Foo // pmd-violation: there is a reason for this error 
{}
        ]]></code>
    </test-code>

(since PMD supports very different languages, the marker cannot be always part of // comment, but in principle should be possible everywhere)