Title :
A Measure of Control Flow Complexity in Program Text
Author :
Woodward, Martin R. ; Hennell, Michael A. ; Hedley, David
Author_Institution :
Department of Computational and Statistical Science, University of Liverpool
Abstract :
This paper discusses the need for measures of complexity and unstructuredness of programs. A simple language independent concept is put forward as a measure of control flow complexity in program text and is then developed for use as a measure of unstructuredness. The proposed metric is compared with other metrics, the most notable of which is the cyclomatic complexity measure. Some experience with automatic tools for obtaining these metrics is reported.
Keywords :
Program complexity; program control flow; program unstructuredness; software metrics; Automatic control; Fluid flow measurement; History; Maintenance; Performance evaluation; Production; Programming profession; Software measurement; Software metrics; Testing; Program complexity; program control flow; program unstructuredness; software metrics;
Journal_Title :
Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TSE.1979.226497
