Efficient Forward Computation of Dynamic Slices Using Reduced Ordered Binary Decision Diagrams

Dynamic slicing algorithms can greatly reduce the debugging effort by focusing the attention of the user on a relevant subset of program statements. Recently algorithms for forward computation of dynamic slices have been proposed which maintain dynamic slices of all variables as the program executes. An advantage of this approach is that when a request for a slice is made, it is already available. The main disadvantage of using such an algorithm for slicing realistic programs is that the space and time required to maintain a large set of dynamic slices corresponding to all program variables can be very high. In this paper we analyze the characteristics of dynamic slices and identify properties that enable space efficient representation of a set of dynamic slices. We show that by using reduced ordered binary decision diagrams (roBDDs) to represent a set of dynamic slices, the space and time requirements of maintaining dynamic slices are greatly reduced. In fact not only can the latest ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: ICSE
• Authors: Xiangyu Zhang, Rajiv Gupta, Youtao Zhang
• Keywords: Dynamic Slices, Dynamic Slicing Algorithms, ICSE 2004, Latest Dynamic Slices, Software Engineering