ITPEC FE Subject A April 2025 Question 36

Analysing the source code for grammatical and logical errors — a static analysis tool examines a program without running it.

A static analysis tool reads the source code and reports syntax errors, suspect logic such as unreachable code or variables used before they are set, violations of coding standards, and complexity measures. Because nothing is executed, it supports static testing and can be used before the program is ever run.

Answer (c)

Why not others:

• •(a) — measuring call frequency and execution time during a run is what a profiler does, a dynamic analysis tool
• •(b) — coverage measured from test execution results requires running the program, so it is a dynamic tool (a coverage analyser)
• •(d) — generating test data and input files is a test data generator, which prepares input for executing tests rather than analysing the code

Key rule: Static tools inspect code without executing it; any tool that measures behaviour during a run is dynamic.

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