Code Leader: Using People, Tools, and Processes to Build Successful Software

Chapter 7. Static Analysis

Put simply, static analysis means "stuff you can learn about your code without running it." There is a whole group of other tools — profilers, debuggers, memory mappers, code coverage analyzers, and the like — that fall under the heading of dynamic analysis. They all require that your code be running to do their work. Static analysis tools look at the code itself, either using reflection in languages capable of using it or by reading source files much as a compiler would.