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Static Code Analysis




The sophistication of the analysis performed by tools varies from those that only consider the behavior of individual statements and declarations, to those that include the complete source code of a program in their analysis. Uses of the information obtained from the analysis vary from highlighting possible coding errors (e.g., the Lint tool) to Formal Methods that mathematically prove properties about a given program (e.g., its behavior matches that of its specification).

Some people consider Software Metric s to be a form of static analysis.

A growing commercial use of static analysis is in the verification of properties of software used in Safety-critical computer systems.


FORMAL METHODS

Formal methods is the term applied to the analysis of Software (and Hardware ) whose results are obtained purely through the use of rigorous mathematical methods. The mathematical techniques used include Denotational Semantics , Axiomatic Semantics , Operational Semantics , and Abstract Interpretation .

It has been proved that finding possible run-time errors – is , Gödel and Turing in the 1930s (see the Halting Problem and Rice's Theorem ). As with most undecidable questions, one can still attempt to give useful approximate solutions.

Some of the implementation techniques of formal static analysis include:
  • Model Checking considers systems that have Finite State or may be reduced to finite state by Abstraction ;

  • Abstract Interpretation models the effect that every statement has on the state of an abstract machine (ie, it 'executes' the software based on the mathematical properties of each statement and declaration).



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