What tools and techniques do you use to find dead code?

Question

What tools and techniques do you use to find dead code in .NET?

In the past, I've decorated methods with the Obsolete attribute (passing true so the compiler will issue an error, as described in MSDN).

I'd be interested in seeing the suggestions of others (beyond tools like FxCop or ReSharper). I want to make sure I'm not missing out on other tools that would be helpful.

Solution 1

TDD + NCover

Solution 2

Why do you need other answers? FxCop and Resharper do the trick, especially seeing as FxCop is now integrated into VS through "Code Analysis".

Solution 3

it appears gray in ReSharper if it's dead code (at least within the solution only)...like uncalled methods or classes or unused properties and variables

Solution 4

Once again, I recommend AQTime. The static code analysis already does what you want (and a lot more), but the other profilers are even more useful. Worth the money, if you can afford it.

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Comments

[Alex Angas]

possible duplicate of Is there a tool for finding unreferenced functions (dead, obsolete code) in a C# app?

[Scott Lawrence]

A question asked 5 years ago can't be a duplicate of a question asked 4 years ago.

[Scott Lawrence]

I hadn't heard of this tool before. Thanks for the tip.

[Lemon]

Code Analysis in visual studio is just the same as running FxCop manually?

[AMissico]

@Svish; Yes, they are the same.

[Dan Atkinson]

The link now redirect to smartbear.com. The actual link should now be smartbear.com/products/qa-tools/….

[OregonGhost]

@DanAtkinson: Updated the link, thanks.

[Olivier Jacot-Descombes]

But what if you have a unit test for an otherwise unused method?