Representing clones in a localized manner

Abstract

Code clones (i.e., duplicate sections of code) can be scattered throughout the source files of a program. Manually evaluating group of such clones requires observing each clone in its origina location (i.e., opening each file and finding the source location o each clone), which can be a time-consuming process. As a alternative, this paper introduces a technique that localizes th representation of code clones to provide a summary of th properties of two or more clones in one location. In our approach the results of a clone detection tool are analyzed in an automate manner to determine the properties (i.e., similarities an differences) of the clones. These properties are visualized directl within the source editor. The localized representation is realize as part of the features of an Eclipse plug-in called CeDAR.