Program dependence graph based slicing for Java
Jaakko Korpi, Jussi Koskinen · International Conference on Software Engineering · 2007
Making changes to source code is a central task in software maintenance. The potential effects of the changes can be revealed by impact analysis. Forward slicing is a well suited technique for impact analysis. We have earlier developed a tool called GRACE for slicing Visual Basic. Since Java-programs have become popular we have implemented its object-oriented extension for Java (GRACE-J). This paper represents its background and development. We apply program (system) dependence graphs (PDGs/SDGs). The implementation includes a parser, PDG/SDG-generator, static slicer, and user interface. We have selected the static approach since in impact analysis it is important to grasp the total potential effect of the suggested changes. We introduce PDG/SDG-based forward slicing, which is not supported by other Java slicers. The implementation validates in its part the feasibility of the selected approach.