Elimination algorithms for data flow analysis

A unified model of a family of data flow algorithms, called elimination methods, is presented. The algorithms, which gather information about the definition and use of data in a program or a set of programs, are characterized by the manner in which they solve the systems of equations that describe data flow problems of interest. The unified model provides implementation-independent descriptions of the algorithms to facilitate comparisons among them and illustrate the sources of improvement in worst case complexity bounds. This tutorial provides a study in algorithm design, as well as a new view of these algorithms and their interrelationships.