Chained method calls

Reports method calls whose target is another method call. The quick-fix suggests to introduce a local variable.

Example:

  class X {
    int foo(File f) {
      return f.getName().length();
    }
  }

After the quick-fix is applied:

  class X {
    int foo(File f) {
      final String name = f.getName();
      return name.length();
    }
  }

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.

ChainedMethodCall

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 | Code style issues

Use the inspection options to toggle warnings for the following cases:

chained method calls in field initializers, for instance, private final int i = new Random().nextInt();
chained method calls operating on the same type, for instance, new StringBuilder().append("x: ").append(new X()).append("y: ").append(new Y()).toString();.

Inspection ID: ChainedMethodCall

Inspection options

Here you can find the description of settings available for the Chained method calls inspection, and the reference of their default values.

Ignore chained method calls in field initializers

Option ID:

m_ignoreFieldInitializations

Default value:

Selected

Ignore calls to methods returning the same type as their enclosing class

Option ID:

ignoreSelfTypes

Default value:

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 ChainedMethodCall

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

IntelliJ IDEA 2025.3

Inspection Details
By default bundled with:	IntelliJ IDEA 2025.3, Qodana for JVM 2025.3,

Last modified: 03 December 2025