'switch' statement with too low of a branch density

Reports switch statements or expressions with a too low ratio of switch labels to executable statements.

Such switch statements may be confusing and should probably be refactored.

Example:

    switch (i) { // one case and 5 executable statements -> 20% density
        case 1:
            System.out.println("1");
            System.out.println("2");
            System.out.println("3");
            System.out.println("4");
            System.out.println("5");
            break;
    }

Locating this inspection

By ID

Can be used to locate inspection in e.g. Qodana configuration files, where you can quickly enable or disable it, or adjust its settings.

SwitchStatementDensity

Via Settings dialog

Path to the inspection settings via IntelliJ Platform IDE Settings dialog, when you need to adjust inspection settings directly from your IDE.

Settings or Preferences | Editor | Inspections | Java | Control flow issues

Use the Minimum density of branches field to specify the allowed ratio of the switch labels to executable statements.

Inspection options

Here you can find the description of settings available for the 'switch' statement with too low of a branch density inspection, and the reference of their default values.

Minimum density of branches: %: Default value:
20

Suppressing Inspection

You can suppress this inspection by placing the following comment marker before the code fragment where you no longer want messages from this inspection to appear:

//noinspection SwitchStatementDensity

More detailed instructions as well as other ways and options that you have can be found in the product documentation:

IntelliJ IDEA 2025.2

Inspection Details
By default bundled with:	IntelliJ IDEA 2025.2, Qodana for JVM 2025.2,

Last modified: 18 September 2025