Problems view: Sort by message

[elenadimitrova]

Working with the problems tab in the panel, issues are grouped by file. Although this is useful, certain dev workflows require dealing with one problem type (EDIT: by problem type here we mean the problem message) at a time and therefore grouping problems by type would be useful. Current view for comparison

Note that this feature had been requested before #41114 and while the moderator has closed it with the argument that filtering functionality can meet this requirement, I am reopening the discussion here, more than 2 years down the line, for reconsideration. Where filtering alone fails is allowing for wider analysis of the number of occurrences of different problems across the solution i.e. is it a widespread problem with say 10-20 occurrences or is it just a single instance. This is essential when performing large refactoring or code upgrades where we have to deal with tens or even hundreds of problems at a time.

Additionally in support of this I am attaching a screenshot of how Visual Studio problems panel displays which many of us coming from the Enterprise are used to with writing C#. Currently all those capabilities are present in VS Code except for the default grouping of problems we get.

[sandy081]

Where filtering alone fails is allowing for wider analysis of the number of occurrences of different problems across the solution i.e. is it a widespread problem with say 10-20 occurrences or is it just a single instance. This is essential when performing large refactoring or code upgrades where we have to deal with tens or even hundreds of problems at a time.

We provide above filters and can you please explain how above filters is not helping your requirement and how grouping is helpful.

[elenadimitrova]

I was talking about code changes where there are potentially tens of problems reported across many files. Sorting by error type allows us to understand how widespread each compile error is and prioritise those in order of number of occurrences for example. The filtering only allows us to get that information one error type at a time which is only useful when you know what you want to fix next.

[sandy081]

Sorting by error type allows us to understand how widespread each compile error is and prioritise those in order of number of occurrences for example.

I am not saying that this is the right way but I think you can also get this information by toggling the filters and get the numbers and prirotize what type to fix ?

I am actually looking for a strong use case to get this feature.

[elenadimitrova]

This means searching for each error type one by one, analyse occurrences of each then summing it all up to decide where to start from. The effort grows exponentially with number and variety of problems reported. When #13953 is implemented, I feel it will be even more of a problem as we'll have to be filtering through much larger problems output by default.

[sandy081]

There are only 4 types and Problems view shows only 3 types. Mostly 2 types are more prominent (errors and warnings).

analyse occurrences of each then summing it all up to decide where to start from.

Not able to figure out the issue here to decide where to start among 2 types (max 3) ?

[elenadimitrova]

Yes I see where the confusion is. Let me use an example from the actual problems list output here (Solidity compilation result for Ethereum):

{
	"resource": "/contracts/legacy/TokenPriceProvider.sol",
	"owner": "_generated_diagnostic_collection_name_#0",
	"severity": 8,
	"message": "Source file requires different compiler version (current compiler is 0.6.8+commit.0bbfe453.Emscripten.clang) - note that nightly builds are considered to be strictly less than the released version",
	"startLineNumber": 17,
	"startColumn": 1,
	"endLineNumber": 17,
	"endColumn": 24
}
{
	"resource": "/contracts/modules/storage/GuardianStorage.sol",
	"owner": "_generated_diagnostic_collection_name_#0",
	"severity": 4,
	"message": "security/no-block-members: Avoid using 'now' (alias to 'block.timestamp').",
	"startLineNumber": 134,
	"startColumn": 49,
	"endLineNumber": 134,
	"endColumn": 5146
}
{
	"resource": "/lib/maker/jug.sol",
	"owner": "_generated_diagnostic_collection_name_#0",
	"severity": 8,
	"message": "Source file requires different compiler version (current compiler is 0.6.8+commit.0bbfe453.Emscripten.clang) - note that nightly builds are considered to be strictly less than the released version",
	"startLineNumber": 1,
	"startColumn": 1,
	"endLineNumber": 1,
	"endColumn": 24
}

In this abbreviated case, I would like to be able to sort by the message string so the first and third errors are grouped together and I can fix at once.

[sandy081]

I see you want to see problems sorted by message and you can go through them. But why do you need grouping by type?

[elenadimitrova]

Define "type" here pls as we're probably talking about different things.

[sandy081]

By type I mean severity. Sorry for not being clear.

[elenadimitrova]

Thanks for clarifying, then I wasn't talking about the severity at all here. I was referring to grouping by the problem message as given in the example above.

[sandy081]

I assume by grouping you mean sorting by message?

[elenadimitrova]

Yes