No Increment Decrement

SuggestionAuto-fixable

small-rules/no-increment-decrement

Disallow standalone `++` and `--` statements and for-loop update clauses.

Rationale

This matches the reason Swift removed these operators in Swift 3.

• Low utility relative to the readability loss: these operators only save a few characters compared to value += 1 or value -= 1. That trade is seldom useful.

• Prefix vs postfix confusion: having both ++value and value++ is confusing. It can also lead to fun subtle bugs, especially when you nest them inside larger expressions where evaluation order matters.

• Redundancy: the increment and decrement operators repeat what += and -= already do. You can add or subtract any value, not just 1.

• Clarity over brevity: explicit code is the goal. Writing value += 1 makes the intent immediately clear without requiring anyone to puzzle over operator precedence.

Swift bans the operators outright. This rule still allows array[size++] = value. That form beats array.push(value) when the extra call costs too much, and the increment is a short spelling for that one case. The native Oxlint rule has no such exception.

Diagnostic Messages

noDecrement

Do not use standalone `--`. Use `-= 1` instead.

noIncrement

Do not use standalone `++`. Use `+= 1` instead.

Configuration

This rule accepts one options object after the severity.

allowAutofixOptional

Allow the fixer to replace standalone ++ and -- statements and for-loop updates.

Type

boolean

Default

false

.oxlintrc.json

{
  "jsPlugins": [
    "@pobammer-ts/small-rules"
  ],
  "rules": {
    "small-rules/no-increment-decrement": [
      "error",
      {
        "allowAutofix": false
      }
    ]
  }
}

oxlint.config.ts

import { defineConfig } from "oxlint";

export default defineConfig({
  jsPlugins: ["@pobammer-ts/small-rules"],
  rules: {
    "small-rules/no-increment-decrement": [
      "error",
      {
        allowAutofix: false,
      },
    ],
  },
});

Examples

Post-increment compound assignment fix

size++;

After auto-fix

size += 1;

Compound assignment is allowed

size += 1;