<aside> 🔑 Key Points

• What is pointer analysis?
• Understand the key factors of pointer analysis
• Understand what we analyze in pointer analysis </aside>

I. Introduction to Pointer Analysis

1. Motivation

1. Eliminate false positives of class hierarchy
2. Make constant propagation more precise

2. Definition

Which objects a pointer can point to?

• A fundamental static analysis
  • Computes which memory locations a pointer can point to
• For object-oriented programs (focus on Java)
  • Computes which objects a pointer (variable or field) can point to
• Regarded as a may-analysis
  • Computes an over-approximation of the set of objects that a pointer can point to, i.e., we ask “a pointer may point to which objects?”

😮 Pointer Analysis is a research area with 40+ years of history (1980)

3. Pointer Analysis and Alias Analysis

Two closely related but different concepts

• Pointer analysis: which objects a pointer can point to?
• Alias analysis: can two pointers point to the same object?

If two pointers, say p and q, refer to the same object, then p and q are aliases

<aside> 💡 Alias information can be derived from points-to relations

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