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Opportunities and Challenges in Code Search Tools

Authors:

John GrundyAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), Volume 54, Issue 9

Article No.: 196, Pages 1 - 40

https://doi.org/10.1145/3480027

Published: 08 October 2021 Publication History

Abstract

Code search is a core software engineering task. Effective code search tools can help developers substantially improve their software development efficiency and effectiveness. In recent years, many code search studies have leveraged different techniques, such as deep learning and information retrieval approaches, to retrieve expected code from a large-scale codebase. However, there is a lack of a comprehensive comparative summary of existing code search approaches. To understand the research trends in existing code search studies, we systematically reviewed 81 relevant studies. We investigated the publication trends of code search studies, analyzed key components, such as codebase, query, and modeling technique used to build code search tools, and classified existing tools into focusing on supporting seven different search tasks. Based on our findings, we identified a set of outstanding challenges in existing studies and a research roadmap for future code search research.

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Cited By

Mondal AHossain MRoy CRoy BSchneider K(2025)FSECAM: A contextual thematic approach for linking feature to multi-level software architectural componentsJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2024.112245219(112245)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2024.112245
Hu HFang MLiu J(2025)An intent-enhanced feedback extension model for code searchInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2024.107589177(107589)Online publication date: Jan-2025
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Index Terms

Opportunities and Challenges in Code Search Tools
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Search-based software engineering

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cover image ACM Computing Surveys

ACM Computing Surveys Volume 54, Issue 9

December 2022

800 pages

ISSN:0360-0300

EISSN:1557-7341

DOI:10.1145/3485140

Editor:
Albert Zomaya
University of Sydney, Australia

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Copyright © 2021 Association for Computing Machinery.

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Publication History

Published: 08 October 2021

Accepted: 01 July 2021

Revised: 01 June 2021

Received: 01 November 2020

Published in CSUR Volume 54, Issue 9

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Cited By

Mondal AHossain MRoy CRoy BSchneider K(2025)FSECAM: A contextual thematic approach for linking feature to multi-level software architectural componentsJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2024.112245219(112245)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2024.112245
Hu HFang MLiu J(2025)An intent-enhanced feedback extension model for code searchInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2024.107589177(107589)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2024.107589
Chen GLiu WXie X(2025)RFMC-CS: a representation fusion based multi-view momentum contrastive learning framework for code searchAutomated Software Engineering10.1007/s10515-025-00487-832:1Online publication date: 1-May-2025
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10515-025-00487-8
Zhang FPeng MWu QShen Y(2025)Key-based data augmentation with curriculum learning for few-shot code searchNeural Computing and Applications10.1007/s00521-024-10670-937:3(1475-1490)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2025
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s00521-024-10670-9
Zhang FLi MWu HWu T(2024)Intelligent code search aids edge software developmentJournal of Cloud Computing: Advances, Systems and Applications10.1186/s13677-024-00629-513:1Online publication date: 1-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1186/s13677-024-00629-5
Matute GNi WBarik TCheung AChasins S(2024)Syntactic Code Search with Sequence-to-Tree Matching: Supporting Syntactic Search with Incomplete Code FragmentsProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36564608:PLDI(2051-2072)Online publication date: 20-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3656460
Sun WFang CGe YHu YChen YZhang QGe XLiu YChen Z(2024)A Survey of Source Code Search: A 3-Dimensional PerspectiveACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/365634133:6(1-51)Online publication date: 28-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3656341
Wang WNing HZhang GLiu LWang Y(2024)Rocks Coding, Not Development: A Human-Centric, Experimental Evaluation of LLM-Supported SE TasksProceedings of the ACM on Software Engineering10.1145/36437581:FSE(699-721)Online publication date: 12-Jul-2024
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Fan GChen SGao CXiao JZhang TFeng Z(2024)RAPID: Zero-Shot Domain Adaptation for Code Search with Pre-Trained ModelsACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/364154233:5(1-35)Online publication date: 3-Jun-2024
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Wang SGeng MLin BSun ZWen MLiu YLi LBissyandé TMao X(2024)Fusing Code SearchersIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2024.340304250:7(1852-1866)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
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