Algorithm of program slicing based on reverse program flow

The traditional method of program slicing was based on reachability algorithm of program dependence graph(PDG) and system dependence graph(SDG).However,to construct PDG and SDG,some data dependenced which were irrelevant to the slicing may be computed.The redundant computing wasted time and memory,and reduced slicing efficiency.To address this problem,this paper presented a slicing algorithm based on reverse program flow.It firstly constructed reverse flow of the program,then scaned the program along reverse flow from the slicing point,and only computed the data dependences which were relevant to slicing.So it improved slicing efficiency.The result of experiment shows this algorithm is feasible and practical.This algorithm can be used for generating slicing of imperative programs,such as Fortran and C program.