A Survey of Refactoring Detection Techniques Based on Change History Analysis

TL;DR

This survey reviews various techniques for detecting refactoring in software systems, focusing on methods based on change history analysis, and discusses future research directions in this area.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive categorization and overview of change history-based refactoring detection techniques, clarifying the current research landscape.

Findings

Various detection techniques are categorized and analyzed.

Change history analysis is a key approach in refactoring detection.

Future research directions are proposed for improving detection methods.

Abstract

Refactoring is the process of changing a software system in such a way that it does not alter the external behavior of the code yet improves its internal structure. Not only researchers, but also practitioners, need to know about past refactoring instances performed in a software development project. So far, a number of techniques have been proposed for automatic detection of refactoring instances. Those techniques have been presented in various international conferences and journals, however, it is difficult for researchers and practitioners to grasp the current status of studies on refactoring detection techniques. In this survey paper, we review various refactoring detection techniques, especially techniques based on change history analysis. First, we give the definition and categorization of refactoring detection methods in this paper, and then introduce refactoring detection techniques based on change history analysis. Finally, we discuss possible future research directions for refactoring detection.