Static analysis is the method that is used for the computer program for debugging that is done by examining the code without any execution of the program and this process is also called static code analysis. Static analysis is used in software engineering by software development and the quality assurance teams. And the automated tools are helping programmers and developers to carry out the static analysis. The software scans the code in the project to check for vulnerabilities while validating the code.
Static analysis is also good to find out coding issues and these are as follows:
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- Security vulnerabilities
- Undefined values
- Errors in programming
- Coding standard violation
- Syntax violations
Static Analysis Types:
Several ways of static analysis are used by an organization, and these are:
- Fault or failure Analysis: This is used to analyze the faults and failures in the model components.
- Interface Analysis: This is used to verification of simulations to check the code and it makes you sure that the interface fits into the model and simulation.
- Data Analysis: This is the analysis method that makes sure to define data is properly used and not only this but also makes sure that the data objects are also properly operating.
- Control Analysis: This is the way that focuses on the control flow in a calling structure. For instance: a control flow can be processed, functioned, method, or in a subroutine.
Benefits of the static analysis:
There are some benefits of using the static analysis:
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- It will check all the code in the application and also increases the code’s quality.
- It also provides the speed of using automated tools in comparison to manual code review.
- Automated tools are prone to human error.
- It can be also done in an offline development environment.
- The static analysis paired with normal testing ways or methods, static testing allowed for more deep into debugging code.
- The static analysis will also increase the likelihood of finding vulnerabilities in the code, and increasing web or application security.
Drawbacks of using static analysis:
Even, the static analysis also has some drawbacks using it. For instance, an organization should know about this and stay aware of the following:
- If there is any defect in the code then the tool many times did not show those defects.
- It also takes more time in comparison to comparable methods.
- Static analysis cannot able to find out how a function will execute.
- Wrong/ false positives can be detected by it.
- System and other third-party libraries cannot be able to be analyzed.
- It is not important that all coding rules are always followed, such as rules that need any external documentation.