Patent ID: 7496894

Claim:
A method of graphing variables in a program, the method comprising: displaying a plurality of nodes, wherein each node of the plurality of nodes represent at least one variable; displaying a plurality of lines, wherein at least one line of the plurality of lines represents a pointer relationship between two nodes; and emanating a flow line from one node of the plurality of nodes to another node of the plurality of nodes so as to create a relationship between the one node and the another node in response to processing an assignment statement between two variables in the program; wherein processing the assignment statement includes forming a relationship between two locations that are related to the two variables, wherein the two locations are selected to be one level of indirection away from a level associated with the assignment statement, wherein each location includes a label and a content; and selectively unifying the content of the first one of the two locations with the content of the second one of the two locations.