Optimising the Fit of Stack Overflow Code Snippets into Existing Code

Abstract: Software developers often reuse code from online sources such as Stack Overflow within their projects. However, the process of searching for code snippets and integrating them within existing source code can be tedious. In order to improve efficiency and reduce time spent on code reuse, we present an automated code reuse tool for the Eclipse IDE (Integrated Developer Environment), NLP2TestableCode. NLP2TestableCode can not only search for Java code snippets using natural language tasks, but also evaluate code snippets based on a user's existing code, modify snippets to improve fit and correct errors, before presenting the user with the best snippet, all without leaving the editor. NLP2TestableCode also includes functionality to automatically generate customisable test cases and suggest argument and return types, in order to further evaluate code snippets. In evaluation, NLP2TestableCode was capable of finding compilable code snippets for 82.9% of tasks, and testable code snippets for 42.9%.