Application Of Program Slices Based On Searching Technology And Set Covering Constructing Algorithm

Program slicing technique can be used to break down a program into smaller fragments.Programmers understand programs by analyzing those fragments.In many cases,it is not necessary to analyze all the fragments.One of the main problems about analyzing these fragments is how to find out the optimal subset of these slices.This is an optimization problem in search based software engineering(SBSE).In this paper,the optimal slicing is defined as a set of slices,which covers the most codes and minimize the inter-slice overlap.Searching for the optimal slice set is a kind of optimization problem of SBSE.In this paper,the search algorithms,the set covering construction algorithm are combined with program slicing technique to find out the optimal slice set.The main work of this paper includes:(1)the slicing technique is combined with SBSE to search for the optimal slice set;(2)an algorithm is proposed for constructing set covers to find out the optimal slice set;(3)the feasibility of set covering constructing algorithm in discovering the optimal slice set is verified by compared with search algorithms;(4)the feasibility of using program slices to measure program coupling is verified by an empirical study;(5)experiments has been conducted to prove that the optimal slice set is a practical way to measure program coupling.The main contributions of this paper are listed as follows:an algorithm is proposed for constructing set covers.The collection of program statements is a finite set in a certain sense.Each slice is a subset of this finite set.This algorithm is applied to find out the optimal slice set in those subsets.the optimal slice set is used to measure program coupling.Experiments are conducted by analyzing two programs with different couplings.