Ragkhitwetsagul, C;
Krinke, J;
(2017)
Using Compilation/Decompilation to Enhance Clone Detection.
In:
Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE 11th International Workshop on Software Clones (IWSC).
(pp. pp. 8-14).
IEEE: Klagenfurt, Austria.
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Abstract
We study effects of compilation and decompilation to code clone detection in Java. Compilation/decompilation canonicalise syntactic changes made to source code and can be used as source code normalisation. We used NiCad to detect clones before and after decompilation in three open source software systems, JUnit, JFreeChart, and Tomcat. We filtered and compared the clones in the original and decompiled clone set and found that 1,201 clone pairs (78.7%) are common between the two sets while 326 pairs (21.3%) are only in one of the sets. A manual investigation identified 325 out of the 326 pairs as true clones. The 252 original-only clone pairs contain a single false positive while the 74 decompiled-only clone pairs are all true positives. Many clones in the original source code that are detected only after decompilation are type-3 clones that are difficult to detect due to added or deleted statements, keywords, package names; flipped if-else statements; or changed loops. We suggest to use decompilation as normalisation to compliment clone detection. By combining clones found before and after decompilation, one can achieve higher recall without losing precision.
Type: | Proceedings paper |
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Title: | Using Compilation/Decompilation to Enhance Clone Detection |
Event: | 2017 IEEE 11th International Workshop on Software Clones (IWSC) |
Location: | Klagenfurt, Austria |
Dates: | 21 February 2017 - 21 February 2017 |
Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
DOI: | 10.1109/IWSC.2017.7880502 |
Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/IWSC.2017.7880502 |
Language: | English |
Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
Keywords: | Cloning, Java, Detectors, Software systems, Manuals, Open source software |
UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Computer Science |
URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1541477 |
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