symbol

   Any object in a program. For example, a FUNCTION, a VARIABLE, a
   CONSTANT, or any of the entities with which a programmer typically
   deals.

   A symbol has occurrences. For example, the declaration of
   a variable is an occurrence, and uses of the variable are
   occurrences. SCA determines which occurrences belong to which
   symbols using the rules of the language you are using. For
   example, you may have two different variables named INDEX in
   separate subroutines. According to the rules of your language,
   these are usually different variables, so they are different
   symbols for SCA.

   It does not matter whether all occurrences of a symbol are in
   a single compilation unit, or spread over several compilation
   units. All the occurrences still belong to the same symbol. For
   example, you may have a subroutine SUB1 in one module, and calls
   to that subroutine in several other modules. These all appear as
   occurrences of the same symbol, named SUB1.

   The programmer and SCA should have the same definition of what
   constitutes a unique item. SCA's term for a unique item is symbol.