Data-flow analysis

Article summary

Data-flow analysis is a technique for gathering information about the possible set of values calculated at various points in a computer program. It forms the foundation for a wide variety of compiler optimizations and program verification techniques. A program's control-flow graph (CFG) is used to determine those parts of a program to which a particular value assigned to a variable might propagate. The information gathered is often used by compilers when optimizing a program. A canonical example of a data-flow analysis is reaching definitions. Other commonly used data-flow analyses include live variable analysis, available expressions, constant propagation, and very busy expressions, each serving a distinct purpose in compiler optimization passes. A simple way to perform data-flow analysis of programs is to set up data-flow equations for each node of the control-flow graph and solve them by repeatedly calculating the output from the input locally at each node until the whole system stabilizes, i.e., it reaches a fixpoint. The efficiency and precision of this process are significantly influenced by the design of the data-flow framework, including the direction of analysis (forward or backward), the domain of values, and the join operation used to merge information from multiple control paths.…

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