dead code

dead code (uncountable)

1. (compilers) Instructions that, when executed, have no effect on the running of the program.
   • 2006, William Von Hagen, The definitive guide to GCC:

     Much dead code elimination is actually done on intermediate representations of your code, which may contain unnecessary intermediate calculations […]

2. (programming) A portion of source code that will never be executed as part of the running program.

   Many software projects contain much dead code in the form of deprecated functions.

   • 2003, Diomidis Spinellis, Code Reading: The Open Source Perspective, Addison-Wesley Professional, →ISBN, page 372:

     If the test data is exhaustive you can even locate dead code: program code that is never executed.

• Instructions that will never be executed may also be referred to as unreachable.

• no-op

• dodecade