Petri net approach to the analysis of a structured program

Abstract The analysis problem of complexity and execution time of a structured program has been tackled using the concept of Petri net (PN). This type of representation is useful due to its graphical and precise nature of representation scheme and also the established relationship between certain net structure and dynamic behaviour of PN can be used as a tool for analysing the behavior of the system. A PN representation of various nested blocks of the structured program is given. The firing characteristic of the transitions in a PN has been used to give an interpretation to each of the blocks and it is shown how each of the blocks can be simplified with a view to calculating the total execution time of a program. It is simple as it gives a straightforward procedure for analysing the program.