IRD — If/Row Density

How linear is your code? Number of if statements per 100 lines of code.

What is IRD?

IRD = number of if statements per 100 lines of code.

It shows how linear your code is. Fewer ifs — more predictable flow.

IRD	Meaning
< 2%	🟢 clean
2–5%	🟡 good
5–10%	🟠 needs attention
> 10%	🔴 for ponies

Install

composer require --dev centaur-vova/ird-meter

Usage

vendor/bin/ird-meter app

Example

PHP IRD (If/Row Density)
  If count: 111
  Total lines: 5807
  Files: 96
  IRD: 1.91%

  clean — this code is linear like a horse's path

With --ignore-comments:

PHP IRD (If/Row Density)
  If count: 111
  Total lines: 3826
  Files: 96
  IRD: 2.90%

  good — some branches, but manageable

The difference: 1981 lines (34%) are comments and PHPDoc.

Self-check (Dogfooding)

PHP IRD (If/Row Density)
  If count: 9
  Total lines: 257
  Files: 3
  IRD: 3.50%

  good — some branches, but manageable

Yes, our own parser has a few ifs. It's a parser — it does nothing but check conditions. Irony appreciated.

See TODO.md — we're working on reducing it. PRs welcome.

Flags

Flag	Description
--raw	Output only the IRD number
--json	Output JSON
--threshold=N	Exit 1 if IRD > N (for CI)
--exclude=A,B	Comma-separated directories to exclude (default: vendor,.git,node_modules,var/cache)
--ignore-comments	Count only non-comment, non-empty lines
--include-elseif	Count elseif branches too
--include-ternary	Count ternary operators
--include-match	Count match expressions
--all	Enable all optional counters
--help, -h	Show this help

CI Integration

- name: Check IRD
  run: vendor/bin/ird-meter app --threshold=5

If IRD exceeds threshold — exit code 1, CI fails.

Why IRD?

Because if is the source of all evil:

• Each if is a branch
• Each branch is a potential bug
• Fewer branches — fewer bugs

Based on nikic/php-parser — accurate AST analysis, no regex, no false positives from comments or strings.

Requirements

• PHP 8.1+
• nikic/php-parser 5.x

License

MIT. Or KBL v4.0 — horses don't abandon horses, and ponies 🦄