Publication Type

Conference Proceeding Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

7-2020

Abstract

Software developers often reuse code from online sources such as Stack Overflow within their projects. However, the process of searching for code snippets and integrating them within existing source code can be tedious. In order to improve efficiency and reduce time spent on code reuse, we present an automated code reuse tool for the Eclipse IDE (Integrated Developer Environment), NLP2TestableCode. NLP2TestableCode can not only search for Java code snippets using natural language tasks, but also evaluate code snippets based on a user’s existing code, modify snippets to improve fit and correct errors, before presenting the user with the best snippet, all without leaving the editor. NLP2TestableCode also includes functionality to automatically generate customisable test cases and suggest argument and return types, in order to further evaluate code snippets. In evaluation, NLP2TestableCode was capable of finding compilable code snippets for 82.9% of tasks, and testable code snippets for 42.9%.

Keywords

Crowd-generated code snippets, Optimisation, Stack overflow

Discipline

Software Engineering

Research Areas

Software and Cyber-Physical Systems

Publication

Proceedings of the 9th International Workshop on Genetic Improvement, Cancún, Mexico, 2020 July 8-12

First Page

1945

Last Page

1953

ISBN

9781450371278

Identifier

10.1145/3377929.3398087

Publisher

ACM

City or Country

Cancun, Mexico

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1145/3377929.3398087

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