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McCabe's Cyclomatic Complexity Number - Software Measurement

This document discusses McCabe's Cyclomatic Complexity Number (CCN) as a software metric for complexity. CCN measures the number of linearly independent paths through a program's flowgraph and is calculated as e - n + 2, where e is the number of edges and n is the number of nodes. A higher CCN indicates more complex code that is harder to understand, change, and test. The document provides examples of calculating CCN for code snippets and discusses its use and limitations.

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119 views14 pages

McCabe's Cyclomatic Complexity Number - Software Measurement

This document discusses McCabe's Cyclomatic Complexity Number (CCN) as a software metric for complexity. CCN measures the number of linearly independent paths through a program's flowgraph and is calculated as e - n + 2, where e is the number of edges and n is the number of nodes. A higher CCN indicates more complex code that is harder to understand, change, and test. The document provides examples of calculating CCN for code snippets and discusses its use and limitations.

Uploaded by

iamtoocoool
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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COMPSCI 702: Software Measurement

McCabes Cyclomatic Complexity Number


Ewan Tempero [email protected]

www.cs.auckland.ac.nz:ewan
Emilia Mendes (supervisor) [email protected]

COMPSCI 702 c Ewan Tempero p.1/14

Lecture Overview
Structure complexity McCabes Cyclomatic Complexity Number References Fenton and Peeger, Chapters 7 & 8 Potential Exam Question

Explain the intuition that supports using McCabes Cyclomatic Complexity Number as a metric for complexity.

COMPSCI 702 c Ewan Tempero p.2/14

Structure complexity: Intuition


The more complex the structure of code . . . the harder it is to understand . . . the more likely it will have a defect . . . the harder it will be to change . . . the longer it will take to produce . . . the more difcult it will be to reuse

COMPSCI 702 c Ewan Tempero p.3/14

What is structure?
control-ow the sequence of instructions that are

executed
data-ow the creation and movement of data between

components of the code


data organisation the relationship of data items to each

other

COMPSCI 702 c Ewan Tempero p.4/14

Directed Graphs
a mathematical structure (with an appealing visual

representation) for representing things that are related consists of vertices (or nodes, or points), connected by edges (or line segments, or arcs). Vertices: A, B, C, D, E, F Edges: (A,C), (A,C), (A,E), (B,C), (B,F), (C,D), (D,A), (E,F),
A

D E F B

Also: undirected graphs, rules restricting edges between

vertices, classication of vertices Graph Theory the study of properties of graphs

COMPSCI 702 c Ewan Tempero p.5/14

Flowgraphs
Directed graphs (owgraphs) can be used to model control

ow of a program
vertex = statement, edge = (A, B) if control ows from

statement A to B
properties of owgraphs may provide information about

properties of the code

COMPSCI 702 c Ewan Tempero p.6/14

Example
A B C D E F G public static boolean isPrime(int n) { boolean prime = true; A int i = 2; while (i < n) { B if (n % i == 0) { prime = false; C } i++; } D return prime; } E

F G

COMPSCI 702 c Ewan Tempero p.7/14

McCabes Cyclomatic Complexity Number (CCN)


measures the number of linearly independent paths through

the owgraph
v(F ) = e n + 2, F the owgraph of the code, n the number

of vertices, e the number of edges


Intuition the larger the CCN the more complex the code Various sources recommend a CCN of no more than 10-15 Example: CCN = 8 7 + 2 = 3

COMPSCI 702 c Ewan Tempero p.8/14

Example 2
A B C D public static boolean isPrimeA(int n) { for (int i = 2; i < n; i++) { A if (n % i == 0) { return false; B } } return true; C }

COMPSCI 702 c Ewan Tempero p.9/14

(counter) Example

if (a) if (b) goto d: else goto e: else if (c) goto d: else goto e: d: print "Hi. " e: print "How are you?"

if (u) if (v) if (w) print "Hi" print "How are you?"

CNN= 11 9 + 2 = 4

CNN= 7 5 + 2 = 4

COMPSCI 702 c Ewan Tempero p.10/14

(counter) Example (2)


From graph theory, v(f ) = d + 1, where d is the number of

predicate nodes (tests/conditions)


public static boolean isPrimeA(int n) { for (int i = 2; i < n; i++) { if (n % i == 0) { return false; } } return true; } public static boolean dividableBy4(int n) { if (n % 2 == 0) { if ((n/2) % 2 == 0) { return true; } } return false; }

COMPSCI 702 c Ewan Tempero p.11/14

Switch statements
switch (a) { case one: break; case two: // fall through case three: break; default: } .... if (a == one) { // do case one } else if (a == two) { // do case two // do case three } else if (a == three) { // do case three } else { // default }

COMPSCI 702 c Ewan Tempero p.12/14

Exceptions
public void aMethod(Object obj) { // some code without conditionals obj.toString(); // more code without conditionals }

... try { // some code FileInputStream f = new FileInputStream("foo") // more code } catch (FileNotFoundException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } catch (SecurityException e2) { e2.printStackTrace(); } finally { System.out.println("finally!"); } ...

COMPSCI 702 c Ewan Tempero p.13/14

Validation
Attribute relation model: direct metric Unit Denition Model: number of linearly independent paths Instrumentation Model: construct the owgraph of the code,

determine the number of edges and vertices compute or (much easier) identify condition vertices compute
Measurement protocol model: for loops, exceptions, switch

statements
Entity population Model: does it make sense to talk about

average CCN?
Representation Condition: for complexity dubious for number of linearly independent paths valid

COMPSCI 702 c Ewan Tempero p.14/14

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