Comparative Analysis on the Evaluation of the Complexity of C, C++, Java, PHP and Python Programming Languages based on Halstead Software Science
Dublin Core
Title
Comparative Analysis on the Evaluation of the Complexity of C, C++, Java, PHP and Python Programming Languages based on Halstead Software Science
Subject
Code Complexity, Complexity Evaluation, Halstead
Software Science, Programming Language
Software Science, Programming Language
Description
Quality plays center stage in any software
development industry. Software metrics have proven over time as
the best measure to be used to assess and assure the software
developers of the quality of their products. Halstead software
science is an essential technique for measuring software
complexity at the source code. In this study, we present a
comparative study using this technique to help the developer by
evaluating the code complexity by considering the structural
composition of a programming language. In this study, an
experiment was done using Halstead metrics to evaluate the
complexity of PHP, C++, Java, C and Python programming
languages. This study demonstrate that Halstead gives a better
approach in evaluating the level of complexity of programming
languages at source code level. The results showed that C++ and
Java are the most complex programming languages while Python
was the least complex warranting less of the programmer's time
and effort when developing a similar project. These findings can
be used by the software developers to make decisions on the
programming language to adopt when they want to come up with
less complex software of high quality. In the future, the
researchers will advance the study to incorporate other software
paradigms and also modify the technique to capture also inter
and intra-modular structural complexity of the various
programming languages.
development industry. Software metrics have proven over time as
the best measure to be used to assess and assure the software
developers of the quality of their products. Halstead software
science is an essential technique for measuring software
complexity at the source code. In this study, we present a
comparative study using this technique to help the developer by
evaluating the code complexity by considering the structural
composition of a programming language. In this study, an
experiment was done using Halstead metrics to evaluate the
complexity of PHP, C++, Java, C and Python programming
languages. This study demonstrate that Halstead gives a better
approach in evaluating the level of complexity of programming
languages at source code level. The results showed that C++ and
Java are the most complex programming languages while Python
was the least complex warranting less of the programmer's time
and effort when developing a similar project. These findings can
be used by the software developers to make decisions on the
programming language to adopt when they want to come up with
less complex software of high quality. In the future, the
researchers will advance the study to incorporate other software
paradigms and also modify the technique to capture also inter
and intra-modular structural complexity of the various
programming languages.
Creator
Kevin Agina Onyango, Geoffrey Wambugu Mariga
Source
www.ijcit.com
Date
March 2023
Contributor
peri irawan
Format
pdf
Language
english
Type
text
Files
Collection
Citation
Kevin Agina Onyango, Geoffrey Wambugu Mariga, “Comparative Analysis on the Evaluation of the Complexity of C, C++, Java, PHP and Python Programming Languages based on Halstead Software Science,” Repository Horizon University Indonesia, accessed May 31, 2025, https://repository.horizon.ac.id/items/show/9103.