# Cyclomatic complexity > Cyclomatic complexity or CC (cyclomatic complexity) is an indicator that calculates the complexity of a program and quantifies how many linearly independent paths the code has. The lowest score is 1 (because if there are no branches, there is only 1 path). Thomas J. McCabe proposed it in 1976.[^1] Cyclomatic complexity or CC (cyclomatic complexity) is an indicator that calculates the complexity of a program and quantifies how many linearly independent paths the code has. The lowest score is 1 (because if there are no branches, there is only 1 path). proposed it in <1976>.[^1] If the cyclomatic complexity is low, test coverage ( to be exact) can be increased even with a small number of . ## Ways to lower CC - : CC can be reduced by using a lookup table or dictionary instead of branching. If the language supports it, it would be good to use pattern matching, but using pattern matching does not lower CC. - : CC can be reduced by using instead of branching. However, doing this does not always guarantee improved code understandability or maintainability. ## CC and early return Contrary to common misunderstanding, using [Guard clauses](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Guard%20clauses.txt) at the beginning of the function does not affect CC. This is because CC, unlike [Cognitive complexity](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Cognitive%20complexity.txt), does not assign weight to nested branches. (Reference: [A case for early returns](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/A%20case%20for%20early%20returns.txt)) ## Alternatives Cyclomatic complexity is good for measuring testability, but it is insufficient for measuring maintainability, so an indicator called [cognitive complexity](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Cognitive%20complexity.txt) has been proposed to supplement this. ## Footnotes [^1]: [A complexity measure](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/A%20complexity%20measure.txt)