New check: invalid-length-returned

Implementation of issue #557.

3 files changed, 79 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/pylint/checkers/classes.py b/pylint/checkers/classes.py
index 95cd5f4d3..fd4c4b252 100644
--- a/pylint/checkers/classes.py
+++ b/pylint/checkers/classes.py
@@ -995,16 +995,22 @@ class SpecialMethodsChecker(BaseChecker):
                   'invalid number of parameters. If it has too few or '
                   'too many, it might not work at all.',
                   {'old_names': [('E0235', 'bad-context-manager')]}),
+        'E0303': ('__len__ does not return non-negative integer',
+                  'invalid-length-returned',
+                  'Used when an __len__ method returns something which is not a '
+                  'non-negative integer', {}),
     }
     priority = -2
 
     @check_messages('unexpected-special-method-signature',
-                    'non-iterator-returned')
+                    'non-iterator-returned', 'invalid-length-returned')
     def visit_functiondef(self, node):
         if not node.is_method():
             return
         if node.name == '__iter__':
             self._check_iter(node)
+        if node.name == '__len__':
+            self._check_len(node)
         if node.name in PYMETHODS:
             self._check_unexpected_method_signature(node)
 
@@ -1086,6 +1092,17 @@ class SpecialMethodsChecker(BaseChecker):
             if not self._is_iterator(infered):
                 self.add_message('non-iterator-returned', node=node)
 
+    def _check_len(self, node):
+        infered = _safe_infer_call_result(node, node)
+        if infered is None or infered is astroid.util.Uninferable:
+            return
+        try:
+            value = infered.value
+        except AttributeError:
+            value = None
+        if not isinstance(value, six.integer_types) or value < 0:
+            self.add_message('invalid-length-returned', node=node)
+
 
 def _ancestors_to_call(klass_node, method='__init__'):
     """return a dictionary where keys are the list of base classes providing
diff --git a/pylint/test/functional/invalid_length_returned.py b/pylint/test/functional/invalid_length_returned.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..cdc35639e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pylint/test/functional/invalid_length_returned.py
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+"""Check invalid value returned by __len__ """
+
+# pylint: disable=too-few-public-methods,missing-docstring,no-self-use,import-error
+import sys
+
+import six
+
+from missing import Missing
+
+
+class FirstGoodLen(object):
+    """__len__ returns <type 'int'>"""
+
+    def __len__(self):
+        return 0
+
+
+class SecondGoodLen(object):
+    """__len__ returns <type 'long'>"""
+
+    def __len__(self):
+        return sys.maxsize + 1
+
+
+class LenMetaclass(type):
+    def __len__(cls):
+        return 1
+
+
+@six.add_metaclass(LenMetaclass)
+class ThirdGoodLen(object):
+    """Length through the metaclass."""
+
+
+class FirstBadLen(object):
+    """ __len__ returns a negative integer """
+
+    def __len__(self):  # [invalid-length-returned]
+        return -1
+
+
+class SecondBadLen(object):
+    """ __len__ returns non-int """
+
+    def __len__(self):  # [invalid-length-returned]
+        return 3.0
+
+
+class ThirdBadLen(object):
+    """ __len__ returns node which does not have 'value' in AST """
+
+    def __len__(self):  # [invalid-length-returned]
+        return lambda: 3
+
+
+class AmbigousLen(object):
+    """ Uninferable return value """
+    __len__ = lambda self: Missing
diff --git a/pylint/test/functional/invalid_length_returned.txt b/pylint/test/functional/invalid_length_returned.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6febeb612
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pylint/test/functional/invalid_length_returned.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+invalid-length-returned:38:FirstBadLen.__len__:__len__ does not return non-negative integer
+invalid-length-returned:45:SecondBadLen.__len__:__len__ does not return non-negative integer
+invalid-length-returned:52:ThirdBadLen.__len__:__len__ does not return non-negative integer