Feature Location in Source Code by Trace-Based Impact Analysis and Information Retrieval
Summary :
Feature location is to identify source code that implements a given feature. It is essential for software maintenance and evolution. A large amount of research, including static analysis, dynamic analysis and the hybrid approaches, has been done on the feature location problems. The existing approaches either need plenty of scenarios or rely on domain experts heavily. This paper proposes a new approach to locate functional feature in source code by combining the change impact analysis and information retrieval. In this approach, the source code is instrumented and executed using a single scenario to obtain the execution trace. The execution trace is extended according to the control flow to cover all the potentially relevant classes. The classes are ranked by trace-based impact analysis and information retrieval. The ranking analysis takes advantages of the semantics and structural characteristics of source code. The identified results are of higher precision than the individual approaches. Finally, two open source cases have been studied and the efficiency of the proposed approach is verified.
- Publication
- IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information Vol.E95-D No.1 pp.205-214
- Publication Date
- 2012/01/01
- Publicized
- Online ISSN
- 1745-1361
- DOI
- 10.1587/transinf.E95.D.205
- Type of Manuscript
- PAPER
- Category
- Software System
Authors
Keyword
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Zhengong CAI, Xiaohu YANG, Xinyu WANG, Aleksander J. KAVS, "Feature Location in Source Code by Trace-Based Impact Analysis and Information Retrieval" in IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information,
vol. E95-D, no. 1, pp. 205-214, January 2012, doi: 10.1587/transinf.E95.D.205.
Abstract: Feature location is to identify source code that implements a given feature. It is essential for software maintenance and evolution. A large amount of research, including static analysis, dynamic analysis and the hybrid approaches, has been done on the feature location problems. The existing approaches either need plenty of scenarios or rely on domain experts heavily. This paper proposes a new approach to locate functional feature in source code by combining the change impact analysis and information retrieval. In this approach, the source code is instrumented and executed using a single scenario to obtain the execution trace. The execution trace is extended according to the control flow to cover all the potentially relevant classes. The classes are ranked by trace-based impact analysis and information retrieval. The ranking analysis takes advantages of the semantics and structural characteristics of source code. The identified results are of higher precision than the individual approaches. Finally, two open source cases have been studied and the efficiency of the proposed approach is verified.
URL: https://global.ieice.org/en_transactions/information/10.1587/transinf.E95.D.205/_p
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@ARTICLE{e95-d_1_205,
author={Zhengong CAI, Xiaohu YANG, Xinyu WANG, Aleksander J. KAVS, },
journal={IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information},
title={Feature Location in Source Code by Trace-Based Impact Analysis and Information Retrieval},
year={2012},
volume={E95-D},
number={1},
pages={205-214},
abstract={Feature location is to identify source code that implements a given feature. It is essential for software maintenance and evolution. A large amount of research, including static analysis, dynamic analysis and the hybrid approaches, has been done on the feature location problems. The existing approaches either need plenty of scenarios or rely on domain experts heavily. This paper proposes a new approach to locate functional feature in source code by combining the change impact analysis and information retrieval. In this approach, the source code is instrumented and executed using a single scenario to obtain the execution trace. The execution trace is extended according to the control flow to cover all the potentially relevant classes. The classes are ranked by trace-based impact analysis and information retrieval. The ranking analysis takes advantages of the semantics and structural characteristics of source code. The identified results are of higher precision than the individual approaches. Finally, two open source cases have been studied and the efficiency of the proposed approach is verified.},
keywords={},
doi={10.1587/transinf.E95.D.205},
ISSN={1745-1361},
month={January},}
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TY - JOUR
TI - Feature Location in Source Code by Trace-Based Impact Analysis and Information Retrieval
T2 - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
SP - 205
EP - 214
AU - Zhengong CAI
AU - Xiaohu YANG
AU - Xinyu WANG
AU - Aleksander J. KAVS
PY - 2012
DO - 10.1587/transinf.E95.D.205
JO - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
SN - 1745-1361
VL - E95-D
IS - 1
JA - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
Y1 - January 2012
AB - Feature location is to identify source code that implements a given feature. It is essential for software maintenance and evolution. A large amount of research, including static analysis, dynamic analysis and the hybrid approaches, has been done on the feature location problems. The existing approaches either need plenty of scenarios or rely on domain experts heavily. This paper proposes a new approach to locate functional feature in source code by combining the change impact analysis and information retrieval. In this approach, the source code is instrumented and executed using a single scenario to obtain the execution trace. The execution trace is extended according to the control flow to cover all the potentially relevant classes. The classes are ranked by trace-based impact analysis and information retrieval. The ranking analysis takes advantages of the semantics and structural characteristics of source code. The identified results are of higher precision than the individual approaches. Finally, two open source cases have been studied and the efficiency of the proposed approach is verified.
ER -
English
