A complexity measure based on selection and nesting

Abstract

Many concepts concerning the quantification of program complexity have been developed during the last few years. One of the most accepted and easy-to-apply complexity measures, McCabe's cyclomatic number, has been discussed and improved in several studies. The cyclomatic number only considers the decision structure of a program. Therefore, this paper proposes a new method for calculating program complexity, the concept of postdomination. This takes into account the degree of nesting of a program. Combining this method and the cyclomatic number, a new complexity measure will be defined.