Reducing the Length of Dynamic and Relevant Slices by Pruning Boolean Expressions
Dynamic and relevant (backward) slicing helps programmers in the debugging process by reducing the number of statements in an execution trace. In this paper, we propose an approach called pruned slicing, which can further reduce the size of slices by reasoning over Boolean expressions. It adds only...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2024-03-01
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| Series: | Electronics |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/13/6/1146 |
| _version_ | 1797241307677065216 |
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| author | Thomas Hirsch Birgit Hofer |
| author_facet | Thomas Hirsch Birgit Hofer |
| author_sort | Thomas Hirsch |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Dynamic and relevant (backward) slicing helps programmers in the debugging process by reducing the number of statements in an execution trace. In this paper, we propose an approach called pruned slicing, which can further reduce the size of slices by reasoning over Boolean expressions. It adds only those parts of a Boolean expression that are responsible for the evaluation outcome of the Boolean expression to the set of relevant variables. We empirically evaluate our approach and compare it to dynamic and relevant slicing using three small benchmarks: the traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS), the Refactory dataset, and QuixBugs. Pruned slicing reduces the size of the TCAS slices on average by 10.2%, but it does not reduce the slice sizes of the Refactory and QuixBugs programs. The times required for computing pruned dynamic and relevant slices are comparable to the computation times of non-pruned dynamic and relevant slices. Thus, pruned slicing is an extension of dynamic and relevant slicing that can reduce the size of slices while having a negligible computational overhead. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T18:21:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-65128c7d777b4031b87fd2584ca88abf |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2079-9292 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T18:21:15Z |
| publishDate | 2024-03-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Electronics |
| spelling | doaj.art-65128c7d777b4031b87fd2584ca88abf2024-03-27T13:35:06ZengMDPI AGElectronics2079-92922024-03-01136114610.3390/electronics13061146Reducing the Length of Dynamic and Relevant Slices by Pruning Boolean ExpressionsThomas Hirsch0Birgit Hofer1Institute of Software Technology, Graz University of Technology, 8010 Graz, AustriaInstitute of Software Technology, Graz University of Technology, 8010 Graz, AustriaDynamic and relevant (backward) slicing helps programmers in the debugging process by reducing the number of statements in an execution trace. In this paper, we propose an approach called pruned slicing, which can further reduce the size of slices by reasoning over Boolean expressions. It adds only those parts of a Boolean expression that are responsible for the evaluation outcome of the Boolean expression to the set of relevant variables. We empirically evaluate our approach and compare it to dynamic and relevant slicing using three small benchmarks: the traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS), the Refactory dataset, and QuixBugs. Pruned slicing reduces the size of the TCAS slices on average by 10.2%, but it does not reduce the slice sizes of the Refactory and QuixBugs programs. The times required for computing pruned dynamic and relevant slices are comparable to the computation times of non-pruned dynamic and relevant slices. Thus, pruned slicing is an extension of dynamic and relevant slicing that can reduce the size of slices while having a negligible computational overhead.https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/13/6/1146dynamic slicingrelevant slicingshort-circuit evaluationsoftware fault localizationsoftware debugging |
| spellingShingle | Thomas Hirsch Birgit Hofer Reducing the Length of Dynamic and Relevant Slices by Pruning Boolean Expressions Electronics dynamic slicing relevant slicing short-circuit evaluation software fault localization software debugging |
| title | Reducing the Length of Dynamic and Relevant Slices by Pruning Boolean Expressions |
| title_full | Reducing the Length of Dynamic and Relevant Slices by Pruning Boolean Expressions |
| title_fullStr | Reducing the Length of Dynamic and Relevant Slices by Pruning Boolean Expressions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reducing the Length of Dynamic and Relevant Slices by Pruning Boolean Expressions |
| title_short | Reducing the Length of Dynamic and Relevant Slices by Pruning Boolean Expressions |
| title_sort | reducing the length of dynamic and relevant slices by pruning boolean expressions |
| topic | dynamic slicing relevant slicing short-circuit evaluation software fault localization software debugging |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/13/6/1146 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT thomashirsch reducingthelengthofdynamicandrelevantslicesbypruningbooleanexpressions AT birgithofer reducingthelengthofdynamicandrelevantslicesbypruningbooleanexpressions |