Properties of control-flow complexity measures

Abstract

The authors attempt to formalize some properties which any reasonable control-flow complexity measure must satisfy. Since large programs are often built by sequencing and nesting of simpler constructs, the authors explore how control-flow complexity measures behave under such compositions. They analyze five existing control flow complexity measures-cyclomatic number, total adjusted complexity, scope ratio, MEBOW, and NPATH. The analysis reveals the strengths and weaknesses of these control flow complexity measures.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>