Unnecessary local variable

Reports local variables that are used only in the very next return statement or are exact copies of other variables.

Such variables can be safely inlined to make the code more clear.

Example:

  fun sum(a: Int, b: Int): Int {
      val c = a + b
      return c
  }

After the quick-fix is applied:

  fun sum(a: Int, b: Int): Int {
      return a + b
  }

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.

UnnecessaryVariable

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 | Kotlin | Redundant constructs

Configure the inspection:

Use the Report immediately returned variables option to report immediately returned variables. When given descriptive names, such variables may improve the code readability in some cases, that's why this option is disabled by default.

Inspection options

Here you can find the description of settings available for the Unnecessary local variable inspection, and the reference of their default values.

Report immediately returned variables: Default value:
Not selected

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 UnnecessaryVariable

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