The Data Flow Analysis Tree

The Data Flow tree displays in a new tabbed view in the IDE. Multiple trees views can be open for the same program but only one can be open for a data item. If you try to run Data Flow Analysis for a data item which is already in the root of the tree, it will be shown in the current tree. If you select a different occurrence of the data item, it will be added as a new tree. In addition, if you make changes to the source code, the currently visible trees will be marked as outdated. Requesting the data item again will create a new tree.

The following list shows some of the different operations that you can perform from the Data Flow Analysis view:

Expand the nodes

Click to expand the nodes of the tree and drill down to the next level.

Navigate to the code

Double-click a node in the tree to navigate to that line in the source code in the editor.

Display a code preview tooltip

Hover over a node.

Change analysis direction

Use the Data flow direction dropdown menu to switch between backward and forward data flow. Forward data flow analysis shows all possible source code locations which will be affected if the selected data item is changed at a specified location. Backward data flow analysis shows where the selected data item came from and source locations that could have changed the value of the data item. Changing analysis direction will reset the tree to show only the top level of data item nodes.

Toggle the highlighting of duplicate nodes

Click .

Change the settings

Click to make additional Data Flow settings such as types of inter-program and intra-program relationships to be displayed. The changed settings will apply only to future code analysis requests.

Remove results

Click to remove the selected results.

Click to remove the outdated results.

Click to remove all results.