ANALYZING INDUCTIVE EXPRESSIONS IN A MULTILANGUAGE¹OPTIMIZING COMPILER

A compiler framework comprises a generic compiler back end which may be used by a plurality of front ends to generate object code for a target computer system. Each front end scans and parses a source module containing source code for a programming language, and generates an intermediate language representation that describes the source code. The intermediate language representation is input to the generic compiler back end which performs optimization and code generation for a plurality of target computer systems. A plurality of optimizations are performed by the generic compiler back end using induction variables. Induction variables are commonly used in performing optimizations such as loop unrolling. An efficient method for determining a set of induction variables for a programming loop construct uses effect and dependency information. Typically, effect and dependency information is used for another purpose besides detecting induction variables, for example, to validate other code optimizations. The method for determining the set of induction variables reuses this information as a shortcut to determine induction variables.