Most of the static code analysis tools which analyse class dependencies generate dependency pairs of classes where each pair represents a direct dependency between two classes. Given those dependency pairs, it is straight forward to calculate number of direct dependencies of a particular class. However, if we have to compute number of indirect dependencies of a class, I realized that the algorithm is fairly complex. Let me clarify what I mean by indirect dependency:

We have following direct dependency class pairs:

Class A depends on Class B

Class B depends on Class C

Class B depends on Class D

In this case, class A depends directly on class B and indirectly on classes C and D.

I would define number of direct dependencies for class A as 1 and number of indirect dependencies for class A as 2.

I would like to compute indirect dependencies for each and every class in the systems that I analyse.

The complexity arises mainly due to cyclic dependencies.

For example, if we were to compute number of indirect dependencies for class A:

Scenario 1:

A -> B

B -> C

C -> D

D -> B

Scenario 2:

A -> B

B -> C

B -> D

C -> E

D -> F

E -> G

F -> G

G -> H

Scenario 3:

A -> B

B -> C

C -> A

There are two possibilities to get this:

1. Is there a tool/library that can compute this? It could be a static analysis tool or something that is totally different but accepts above kind of dependency data and calculates what I am looking for.

2. I can represent the direct dependency pairs as a directed graph (graph theory) and may be graph theory has a solution to find this out. Something like, recursive sum of outdegrees of adjacent nodes.

Let me know what is the best way to get it.

Most of the static code analysis tools which analyse class dependencies generate dependency pairs of classes where each pair represents a direct dependency between two classes. Given those dependency pairs, it is straight forward to calculate number of direct dependencies of a particular class. However, if we have to compute number of indirect dependencies of a class, I realized that the algorithm is fairly complex. Let me clarify what I mean by indirect dependency:

We have following direct dependency class pairs:

Class A depends on Class B

Class B depends on Class C

Class B depends on Class D

In this case, class A depends directly on class B and indirectly on classes C and D.

I would define number of direct dependencies for class A as 1 and number of indirect dependencies for class A as 2.

I would like to compute indirect dependencies for each and every class in the systems that I analyse.

The complexity arises mainly due to cyclic dependencies.

For example, if we were to compute number of indirect dependencies for class A:

Scenario 1:

A -> B

B -> C

C -> D

D -> B

Scenario 2:

A -> B

B -> C

B -> D

C -> E

D -> F

E -> G

F -> G

G -> H

Scenario 3:

A -> B

B -> C

C -> A

Can this be solved by using graph theory? For example, represent all dependency pairs using a directed graph and calculate recursive sum of outdegrees of adjacent nodes. Any other ideas are welcome.

Let me know what is the best way to get it.