Minimal slicing and the relationships between forms of slicing

Abstract

The widespread interest in program slicing within the source code analysis and manipulation community has led to the introduction of a large number of different slicing techniques. Each preserves some aspect of a program's behaviour and simplifies the program to focus exclusively upon this behaviour. In order to understand the similarities and differences between slicing techniques, a formal mechanism is required. This paper establishes a formal mechanism for comparing slicing techniques using a theory of program projection. Sets of minimal slices, which form the ideal for any slicing algorithm, are used to reveal the ordering relationship between various static and dynamic slicing techniques.