Measurement of data structure complexity

Abstract A new measure of software complexity is introduced. This new complexity metric describes the data structure complexity of operands in a program from a functional point of view. The computational methodology for the metric is presented. An empirical study is included to show the behavior of the new metric in relation to an existing set of validated metric primitives. This study shows that the new metric measures a source of variation not accounted for in the set of metric primitives. It provides additional resolution on the description of differences among data structures among program elements. As a result, a new complexity domain, that of data structure, may be added to an emerging complexity domain model.