AN INHERITANCE FLOW MODEL FOR CLASS HIERARCHY ANALYSIS

This paper presents an inheritance flow model, which represents the in heritance relationships among classes as a flow graph. A flow operatio n is associated with each attribute and method in a class to denote th e defined (redefined) or inherited member. An inherited member can be deemed as being handled by a sequence of how operations along a path i n the flow graph. This model provides several analyses in a class hier archy, such as implicit inherited member and polymorphic method invoca tion. These analyses may be applied in various fields of software engi neering, such as static analysis, maintenance, and complexity measurem ent. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.