Contextual def-use associations for object aggregation

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a novel formulation of definitions, uses, and def-use associations for objects in object-oriented programs by exploiting the relations that occur between classes and their instantiated objects due to aggregation. Contextual def-use associations are computed by generating a partial call sequence for each def and use based on object aggregation relations. By extending an escape points-to graph representation of the program, we have developed and implemented three strategies for achieving different levels of context for contextual def-use associations. Our experiments reveal that with all three strategies, multiple unique contextual def-use associations related to the same traditional (context-free) association are often generated. Contextual def-use associations are particularly useful for increasing test coverage and focusing the testing on critical method invocation sequences of object-oriented programs.

References

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Index Terms

• Software and its engineering

  • Software creation and management

    • Software verification and validation

      • Software defect analysis

        • Software testing and debugging

• Theory of computation

  • Logic

  • Semantics and reasoning

    • Program constructs

      • Object oriented constructs

    • Program reasoning