Static analysis of source code written by novice programmers

Abstract

In this paper we are reporting the finding on the use of a static analysis of C source code written by students learning to program. Two different tools for static code analysis were used to analyze the solutions submitted by the students on the partial exams and exams from the introductory course in programming in a three year period. We have collected, analyzed and compared most common errors reported by both tools. We further investigate if the available checks provided by these tools, often used in professional software development practices to find bugs and improve the code quality, can also help novice programmers in tracking down and resolving their problems in the code or have any other value in the process of learning programming.