Function Inlining Algorithm for Program Analysis

Most of existing inlining algorithms are used in optimizing compilers and are not suitable for program analysis. Therefore, an inlining algorithm based on program dependence graph is proposed. It uses simple function call tree to determine the sequence of inlining and adopts program dependence graph as the intermediate representation for a program. Inline expansion is performed on program dependence graphs, and a single program dependence graph without call node is produced in the end, so that the original program is transformed into a semantically equivalent program that is free of function invocation. This algorithm has already been applied to the code normalization process of an automatic grading system of student programs and a similar code detection system. Test results show that it can improve the variation removal rate of the code normalization and facilitate program analysis.