[java] ConstructorCallsOverridableMethod occurs when unused overloaded method is defined

[mistercam]

Affects PMD Version: 6.11.0, 6.21.0

Rule: ConstructorCallsOverridableMethod

Description:
If a constructor calls a non-overridable public method, and this method has an overridable overloaded version (which is not called from the constructor or from the non-overridable version,) then a ConstructorCallsOverridableMethod rule exception is raised.

Code Sample demonstrating the issue:

public class Scratch {
    private Long member = 0L;

    public Scratch(final Long v) {
        setMember(v);
    }

    public final void setMember(final Long v) {
        this.member = v;
    }

    // Renaming this or marking it as final prevents the
    // 'ConstructorCallsOverridableMethod' rule from being broken.
    public void setMember(final String n) {
        setMember(Long.valueOf(n));
    }
}

Running PMD through: Gradle (with version 6.11.0) and CLI (with version 6.21.0)

[adangel]

Another example:

import java.util.Date;

public class MyTimestamp {
    private final long t;
    public MyTimestamp() {
        t = new Date().getTime(); // <-- false-positive violation here
    }
    public long getTime() {
        return t;
    }
}