Combining Preprocessor Slicing with C/C++ Language Slicing

Slicing C programs has been one of the most popular ways for the implementation of slicing algorithms; out of the very few practical implementations that exist many deal with this programming language. Yet, preprocessor related issues have been addressed very marginally by these slicers, despite the fact that ignoring (or handling poorly) these constructs may lead to serious inaccuracies in the slicing results and hence in the comprehension process. Recently, an accurate slicing method for preprocessor related constructs has been proposed which - when combined with existing C/C++ language slicers - can provide a more complete comprehension of these languages. In this paper, we overview our approach for this combination and report its benefits in terms of the completeness of the resulting slices.

Keywords: Program slicing, C/C++, preprocessing, preprocessor slicing.