Issue #2433: Exclude lines with imports in LineLength check

config/suppressions.xml

@@ -53,9 +53,6 @@
     <!-- Suppressions to remove over time -->
     <suppress checks="." files=".*[\\/]src[\\/]it[\\/]" lines="28-999"/>
 
-    <!-- Suppressions for long import statics -->
-    <suppress checks="LineLength" files=".*[\\/]src[\\/]test[\\/]" lines="22-29"/>
-
     <!--
       Turn off all checks for Generated and Test code. Fixes issues with using
       Eclipse plug-in.

src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/sizes/LineLengthCheck.java

@@ -37,9 +37,7 @@ import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.utils.CommonUtils;
  * </p>
  *
  * <p>
- * Note: Support for the special handling of imports in CheckStyle Version 2
- * has been dropped as it is a special case of regexp: The user can set
- * the ignorePattern to "^import" and achieve the same effect.
+ * Import statements (lines matching pattern {@code ^import .*}) are not verified by this check.
  * </p>
  * <p>
  * The default maximum allowable line length is 80 characters. To change the
@@ -86,6 +84,9 @@ public class LineLengthCheck extends Check {
     /** Default maximum number of columns in a line. */
     private static final int DEFAULT_MAX_COLUMNS = 80;
 
+    /** Pattern matching import and import static statements. */
+    private static final Pattern IMPORT_PATTERN = Pattern.compile("^import .*");
+
     /** The maximum number of columns in a line. */
     private int max = DEFAULT_MAX_COLUMNS;
 
@@ -123,7 +124,7 @@ public class LineLengthCheck extends Check {
             final int realLength = CommonUtils.lengthExpandedTabs(
                 line, line.length(), getTabWidth());
 
-            if (realLength > max
+            if (realLength > max && !IMPORT_PATTERN.matcher(line).find()
                 && !ignorePattern.matcher(line).find()) {
                 log(i + 1, MSG_KEY, max, realLength);
             }

src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/sizes/LineLengthCheckTest.java

@@ -78,4 +78,15 @@ public class LineLengthCheckTest extends BaseCheckTestSupport {
         };
         verify(checkConfig, getPath("InputSimple.java"), expected);
     }
+
+    @Test
+    public void shouldNotLogLongImportStatements() throws Exception {
+        final DefaultConfiguration checkConfig =
+            createCheckConfig(LineLengthCheck.class);
+        checkConfig.addAttribute("max", "80");
+        final String[] expected = {
+            "9: " + getCheckMessage(MSG_KEY, 80, 87),
+        };
+        verify(checkConfig, getPath("InputLongImportStatements.java"), expected);
+    }
 }

src/test/resources/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/sizes/InputLongImportStatements.java

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+package com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.sizes;
+
+import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.grammars.comments.InputFullOfSinglelineComments;
+import static com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.grammars.comments.InputFullOfSinglelineComments.main;
+
+public class InputLongImportStatements {
+    @Override
+    public String toString() {
+        return "This is very long line that should be logged because it is not import";
+    }
+}

src/xdocs/config_sizes.xml

@@ -245,9 +245,8 @@
             property <code>tabWidth</code> for <code>LineLength</code> alone.
           </li>
           <li>
-            Support for the special handling of imports in CheckStyle Version
-            2 has been dropped as it is a special case of regexp: The user can
-            set property <code>ignorePattern</code> to <code>^import</code> and achieve the same effect.
+            Import statements (lines matching pattern <code>^import .*</code>) are not verified by
+            this check.
           </li>
         </ul>
       </subsection>