Query-based filtering and graphical view generation for clone analysis

Code clones are similar program structures recurring in software systems. Clone detectors produce much information and a challenge is to identify useful clones depending on the goals of clone analysis. To do her abstraction, filtering and visualization of cloning information, with the involvement of a human expert, is required. In this paper, we describe a technique for filtering and visualization of cloning information generated by Clone Miner, a clone detection tool presented in our earlier work. Unique benefit and contribution of our approach is that a human expert can define a wide range of filters to abstract views of the cloning data using a clone-query system to suit specific needs of clone analysis. We then produce standardized graphical presentations of those views for various types of clone queries. We implemented the technique into an Eclipse plug-in called Clone Visualizer. Clone Visualizer works closely with Clone Miner which not only finds similar code fragments (simple ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: ICSM
• Authors: Yali Zhang, Hamid Abdul Basit, Stan Jarzabek, Dang Anh, Melvin Low
• Keywords: Clone Analysis, Clone Miner, Clone Visualizer, ICSM 2008, Software Engineering