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Refactoring using type constraints

Authors:

Robert M. Fuhrer,

Michael D. Ernst,

Bjorn De SutterAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS), Volume 33, Issue 3

Article No.: 9, Pages 1 - 47

https://doi.org/10.1145/1961204.1961205

Published: 04 May 2011 Publication History

Abstract

Type constraints express subtype relationships between the types of program expressions, for example, those relationships that are required for type correctness. Type constraints were originally proposed as a convenient framework for solving type checking and type inference problems. This paper shows how type constraints can be used as the basis for practical refactoring tools. In our approach, a set of type constraints is derived from a type-correct program P. The main insight behind our work is the fact that P constitutes just one solution to this constraint system, and that alternative solutions may exist that correspond to refactored versions of P. We show how a number of refactorings for manipulating types and class hierarchies can be expressed naturally using type constraints. Several refactorings in the standard distribution of Eclipse are based on our work.

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Cited By

Pailoor SWang YDillig I(2024)Semantic Code Refactoring for Abstract Data TypesProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36328708:POPL(816-847)Online publication date: 5-Jan-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3632870
Li HTan TLi YLu JMeng HCao LHuang YLi LGao LDi PLin LCui C(2024)Generic Sensitivity: Generics-Guided Context Sensitivity for Pointer AnalysisIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2024.337764550:5(1144-1162)Online publication date: 12-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.2024.3377645
Chi XLiu HLi GWang WXia YJiang YZhang YJi WChandra SBlincoe KTonella P(2023)An Automated Approach to Extracting Local VariablesProceedings of the 31st ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering10.1145/3611643.3616261(313-325)Online publication date: 30-Nov-2023
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Index Terms

Refactoring using type constraints
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Software post-development issues
      1. Software reverse engineering
  2. Software notations and tools
    1. Development frameworks and environments
    2. General programming languages
      1. Language types
        Object oriented languages
2. Theory of computation
  1. Semantics and reasoning
    1. Program reasoning
      1. Program analysis
    2. Program semantics

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Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems

ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems Volume 33, Issue 3

April 2011

119 pages

ISSN:0164-0925

EISSN:1558-4593

DOI:10.1145/1961204

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2011 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 04 May 2011

Accepted: 01 July 2010

Revised: 01 December 2009

Received: 01 June 2009

Published in TOPLAS Volume 33, Issue 3

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Cited By

Pailoor SWang YDillig I(2024)Semantic Code Refactoring for Abstract Data TypesProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36328708:POPL(816-847)Online publication date: 5-Jan-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3632870
Li HTan TLi YLu JMeng HCao LHuang YLi LGao LDi PLin LCui C(2024)Generic Sensitivity: Generics-Guided Context Sensitivity for Pointer AnalysisIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.2024.337764550:5(1144-1162)Online publication date: 12-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.2024.3377645
Chi XLiu HLi GWang WXia YJiang YZhang YJi WChandra SBlincoe KTonella P(2023)An Automated Approach to Extracting Local VariablesProceedings of the 31st ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering10.1145/3611643.3616261(313-325)Online publication date: 30-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3611643.3616261
Miljak LBach Poulsen Cvan Spaendonck FTomb A(2023)Verifying Well-Typedness Preservation of Refactorings using Scope GraphsProceedings of the 25th ACM International Workshop on Formal Techniques for Java-like Programs10.1145/3605156.3606455(44-50)Online publication date: 18-Jul-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3605156.3606455
Chen YWang YGoyal MDong JFeng YDillig I(2022)Synthesis-powered optimization of smart contracts via data type refactoringProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/35633086:OOPSLA2(560-588)Online publication date: 31-Oct-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3563308
Li HLu JMeng HCao LHuang YLi LGao LRoychoudhury ACadar CKim M(2022)Generic sensitivity: customizing context-sensitive pointer analysis for genericsProceedings of the 30th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering10.1145/3540250.3549122(1110-1121)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3540250.3549122
Szalay RPorkolab Z(2022)Flexible semi-automatic support for type migration of primitives for C/C++ programs2022 IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER)10.1109/SANER53432.2022.00106(878-889)Online publication date: Mar-2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/SANER53432.2022.00106
AlOmar EMkaouer MNewman COuni A(2022)On preserving the behavior in software refactoringInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2021.106675140:COnline publication date: 22-Apr-2022
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Schuts MAarssen RTielemans PVinju J(2022)Large‐scale semi‐automated migration of legacy C/C++ test codeSoftware: Practice and Experience10.1002/spe.308252:7(1543-1580)Online publication date: 22-Mar-2022
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Dilhara MKetkar ADig D(2021)Understanding Software-2.0ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/345347830:4(1-42)Online publication date: 23-Jul-2021
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