Abstract
A data flow algorithm is one that gathers information about the definition and use of data in a program or a set of programs. A unified model of a family of data flow algorithms, called elimination methods, is presented. The algorithms are characterized by the manner in which they solve the systems of equations that describe data flow problems of interest These implementation-independent descriptions of the algorithms facilitate comparisons among them and illustrate the sources of improvement in worst case complexity bounds. This tutorial is valuable as a study in algorithm design; it presents a new view of these algorithms and their interrelations.