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Static Analysis

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Synonyms

Static program analysis

Related Concepts

Dynamic Analysis; Static Analysis

Definition

Static analysis is the process of analyzing a program text in order to extract semantic information.

Background

Static analysis algorithms historically have come from compiler research and implementations. Static analysis algorithms extracted facts about a program that were used by the compiler to ensure correct and efficient translation from a source language to a destination language. One of the earliest examples is the 1957 IBM FORTRAN compiler, which included a number of static analyses for efficiently mapping user variables to registers, transforming loops to make execution more efficient, and ensuring a program is well typed [1].

Initial static analysis were intra-procedural analysis, meaning only a single procedure is analyzed at a time, and all procedures are analyzed independent of other procedures. Inter-proceduralanalysis — static analysis that considers the relationships between...

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Recommended Reading

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Brumley, D. (2011). Static Analysis. In: van Tilborg, H.C.A., Jajodia, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5906-5_839

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