Mutable members should not be stored or returned directly

Mutable objects are those whose state can be changed. For instance, an array is mutable, but a String is not. Mutable class members should never be returned to a caller or accepted and stored directly. Doing so leaves you vulnerable to unexpected changes in your class state.

Instead use an unmodifiable Collection (via Collections.unmodifiableCollection, Collections.unmodifiableList, …) or make a copy of the mutable object, and store or return the copy instead.

This rule checks that arrays, collections and Dates are not stored or returned directly

Noncompliant Code Example:

class A {
  private String [] strings;

  public A () {
    strings = new String[]{"first", "second"};
  }

  public String [] getStrings() {
    return strings; // Noncompliant
  }

  public void setStrings(String [] strings) {
    this.strings = strings;  // Noncompliant （按此规则，构造器也不应该这样做）
  }
}

public class B {

  private A a = new A();  // At this point a.strings = {"first", "second"};

  public void wreakHavoc() {
    a.getStrings()[0] = "yellow";  // a.strings = {"yellow", "second"};
  }
}

Compliant Solution:

class A {
  private String [] strings;

  public A () {
    strings = new String[]{"first", "second"};
  }

  public String [] getStrings() {
    return strings.clone();
  }

  public void setStrings(String [] strings) {
    this.strings = strings.clone();
  }
}

public class B {

  private A a = new A();  // At this point a.strings = {"first", "second"};

  public void wreakHavoc() {
    a.getStrings()[0] = "yellow";  // a.strings = {"first", "second"};
  }
}