Impact Analysis

“If I change this, what is Impacted?”
Don’t break your application over a change! Anticipate side effects. Avoid regressions.

No matter the item changed: Visual Expert can find all references to it.
Check your code and safely commit your changes.

What is an Impact Analysis?

An Impact Analysis shows the items using/depending on a certain piece of code.

What is Impact Analysis?

Visual Expert performs a static analysis of your code. No matter the item changed (object, table, column, function, variable) Visual Expert will find all references to it.

Note: Impact Analyses show references at instruction-level.

Why use Impact Analysis?

  1. Understand the inner working of your application.
  2. Evaluate the potential consequences of a change.
    Identify what needs to be changed to complete a modification.
    Review your code, before safely committing changes.
  3. Debug anomalies of program execution.

Examples:

  • A table or a column is modified: where is it used in my code?
  • This variable has changed: where is it referenced?
  • This function has a new parameter, which calls should I update?

How to Run an Impact Analysis?

First, select a presentation style:

TreeView E/R Diagram
Impact Analysis in Tree View for PowerBuilder Impact Analysis in ER Diagram for PowerBuilder
Tutorials: Tutorials:

Video Tutorial - Impact Analysis & Code Maintenance

 

See Also

Visual Expert, PowerBuilder, Code Analysis, Impact Analysis, Cross References