Verification of Array, Record, and Pointer Operations in Pascal

Abstract

A practical method is presented for automating in a uniform way the verification of Pascal programs that operate on the standard Pascal data structures Array, Record, and Pointer. New assertion language primitives are introduced for describing computational effects of operations on these data structures. Axioms defining the semantics of the new primitives are given. Proof rules for standard Pascal operations on data structures are then defined using the extended assertion language. An axiomatic rule for the Pascal storage allocation operation, NEW, is also given. These rulers have been implemented in the Stanford Pascal program verifier. Examples illustrating the verification of programs which operate on list structures implemented with pointers and records are discussed. These include programs with side effects.