Do code clones matter?

Elmar Juergens, Florian Deissenboeck, Benjamin Hummel, Stefan Wagner

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

367 Scopus citations

Abstract

Code cloning is not only assumed to inflate maintenance costs but also considered defect-prone as inconsistent changes to code duplicates can lead to unexpected behavior. Consequently, the identification of duplicated code, clone detection, has been a very active area of research in recent years. Up to now, however, no substantial investigation of the consequences of code cloning on program correctness has been carried out. To remedy this shortcoming, this paper presents the results of a large-scale case study that was undertaken to find out if inconsistent changes to cloned code can indicate faults. For the analyzed commercial and open source systems we not only found that inconsistent changes to clones are very frequent but also identified a significant number of faults induced by such changes. The clone detection tool used in the case study implements a novel algorithm for the detection of inconsistent clones. It is available as open source to enable other researchers to use it as basis for further investigations.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2009 31st International Conference on Software Engineering - Proceedings, ICSE 2009
Pages485-495
Number of pages11
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009
Event2009 31st International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE 2009 - Vancouver, BC, Canada
Duration: 16 May 200924 May 2009

Publication series

NameProceedings - International Conference on Software Engineering
ISSN (Print)0270-5257

Conference

Conference2009 31st International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE 2009
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityVancouver, BC
Period16/05/0924/05/09

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Do code clones matter?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this