Program Slicing - Dynamic Slicing

Dynamic Slicing

Makes use of information about a particular execution of a program. A dynamic slice contains all statements that actually affect the value of a variable at a program point for a particular execution of the program rather than all statements that may have affected the value of a variable at a program point for any arbitrary execution of the program.

An example to clarify the difference between static and dynamic slicing. Consider a small piece of a program unit, in which there is an iteration block containing an if-else block. There are a few statements in both the if and else blocks that have an effect on a variable. In the case of static slicing, since the whole program unit is looked at irrespective of a particular execution of the program, the affected statements in both blocks would be included in the slice. But, in the case of dynamic slicing we consider a particular execution of the program, wherein the if block gets executed and the affected statements in the else block do not get executed. So, in this particular execution case, the dynamic slice would contain only the statements in the if block.