Representing Clones in a Localized Manner

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