Abstract
Code search is an unavoidable activity in software development. Various approaches and techniques have been explored in the literature to support code search tasks. Most of these approaches focus on serving user queries provided as natural language free-form input. However, there exists a wide range of use-case scenarios where a code-to-code approach would be most beneficial. For example, research directions in code transplantation, code diversity, patch recommendation can leverage a code-to-code search engine to find essential ingredients for their techniques. In this paper, we propose FaCoY, a novel approach for statically finding code fragments which may be semantically similar to user input code. FaCoY implements a query alternation strategy: instead of directly matching code query tokens with code in the search space, FaCoY first attempts to identify other tokens which may also be relevant in implementing the functional behavior of the input code. With various experiments, we show that (1) FaCoY is more effective than online code-to-code search engines; (2) FaCoY can detect more semantic code clones (i.e., Type-4) in BigCloneBench than the state-of-the-art; (3) FaCoY, while static, can detect code fragments which are indeed similar with respect to runtime execution behavior; and (4) FaCoY can be useful in code/patch recommendation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proceedings |
| Subtitle of host publication | 2018 ACM/IEEE 40th International Conference on Software Engineering - ICSE 2018 |
| Editors | Marsha Chechik, Mark Harman |
| Place of Publication | New York NY USA |
| Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) |
| Pages | 946-957 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781450356381 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 27 May 2018 |
| Event | International Conference on Software Engineering 2018 - Gothenburg, Sweden Duration: 27 May 2018 → 3 Jun 2018 Conference number: 40th https://www.icse2018.org/ |
Conference
| Conference | International Conference on Software Engineering 2018 |
|---|---|
| Abbreviated title | ICSE 2018 |
| Country | Sweden |
| City | Gothenburg |
| Period | 27/05/18 → 3/06/18 |
| Internet address |
Cite this
}
FaCoY : a code-to-code search engine. / Kim, Kisub; Kim, Dongsun; Bissyandé, Tegawendé F.; Choi, Eunjong; Li, Li; Klein, Jacques; Traon, Yves Le.
Proceedings: 2018 ACM/IEEE 40th International Conference on Software Engineering - ICSE 2018. ed. / Marsha Chechik; Mark Harman. New York NY USA : Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2018. p. 946-957.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research
TY - GEN
T1 - FaCoY
T2 - a code-to-code search engine
AU - Kim, Kisub
AU - Kim, Dongsun
AU - Bissyandé, Tegawendé F.
AU - Choi, Eunjong
AU - Li, Li
AU - Klein, Jacques
AU - Traon, Yves Le
PY - 2018/5/27
Y1 - 2018/5/27
N2 - Code search is an unavoidable activity in software development. Various approaches and techniques have been explored in the literature to support code search tasks. Most of these approaches focus on serving user queries provided as natural language free-form input. However, there exists a wide range of use-case scenarios where a code-to-code approach would be most beneficial. For example, research directions in code transplantation, code diversity, patch recommendation can leverage a code-to-code search engine to find essential ingredients for their techniques. In this paper, we propose FaCoY, a novel approach for statically finding code fragments which may be semantically similar to user input code. FaCoY implements a query alternation strategy: instead of directly matching code query tokens with code in the search space, FaCoY first attempts to identify other tokens which may also be relevant in implementing the functional behavior of the input code. With various experiments, we show that (1) FaCoY is more effective than online code-to-code search engines; (2) FaCoY can detect more semantic code clones (i.e., Type-4) in BigCloneBench than the state-of-the-art; (3) FaCoY, while static, can detect code fragments which are indeed similar with respect to runtime execution behavior; and (4) FaCoY can be useful in code/patch recommendation.
AB - Code search is an unavoidable activity in software development. Various approaches and techniques have been explored in the literature to support code search tasks. Most of these approaches focus on serving user queries provided as natural language free-form input. However, there exists a wide range of use-case scenarios where a code-to-code approach would be most beneficial. For example, research directions in code transplantation, code diversity, patch recommendation can leverage a code-to-code search engine to find essential ingredients for their techniques. In this paper, we propose FaCoY, a novel approach for statically finding code fragments which may be semantically similar to user input code. FaCoY implements a query alternation strategy: instead of directly matching code query tokens with code in the search space, FaCoY first attempts to identify other tokens which may also be relevant in implementing the functional behavior of the input code. With various experiments, we show that (1) FaCoY is more effective than online code-to-code search engines; (2) FaCoY can detect more semantic code clones (i.e., Type-4) in BigCloneBench than the state-of-the-art; (3) FaCoY, while static, can detect code fragments which are indeed similar with respect to runtime execution behavior; and (4) FaCoY can be useful in code/patch recommendation.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85049382246&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/3180155.3180187
DO - 10.1145/3180155.3180187
M3 - Conference Paper
AN - SCOPUS:85049382246
SN - 9781450356381
SP - 946
EP - 957
BT - Proceedings
A2 - Chechik, Marsha
A2 - Harman, Mark
PB - Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
CY - New York NY USA
ER -