A formalisation of the relationship between forms of program slicing

The widespread interest in program slicing within the source code analysis and manipulation community has led to the introduction of a large number of different forms of slicing. Each preserves some aspect of a program’s behaviour and simplifies the program to focus exclusively upon this behaviour. In order to understand the similarities and differences between forms of slicing, a formal mechanism is required. This paper further develops a formal framework for comparing forms of slicing using a theory of program projection. This framework is used to reveal the ordering relationship between various static, dynamic, simultaneous and conditioned forms of slicing.