Well the problem with that analysis is, what qualifies as a &quot;line&quot; of code?<p>An efficient algorithm may be punished over an inefficient one.  An optimal one-liner can certainly cost a lot to develop (maybe you need a smart engineer, a lot of testing and a lot of time to figure it out) yet it would appear to be cheap.<p>Then there&#x27;s just textual differences.  It depends on the programming language.  And it can be different even in the same language...<p>This function has one line:<p><pre><code>    void f() { ... }
</code></pre>
This function has 5 lines:<p><pre><code>    void
    f()
    {
       ...
    }
</code></pre>
This function has many lines:<p><pre><code>    &#x2F;*
    &lt;several lines of comments&gt;
    *&#x2F;
    void
    f()
    {
       ...
    }</code></pre>