Generating Clarifying Questions for Query Refinement in Source Code Search

Abstract: In source code search, a common information-seeking strategy involves providing a short initial query with a broad meaning, and then iteratively refining the query using terms gleaned from the results of subsequent searches. This strategy requires programmers to spend time reading search results that are irrelevant to their development needs. In contrast, when programmers seek information from other humans, they typically refine queries by asking and answering clarifying questions. Clarifying questions have been shown to benefit general-purpose search engines, but have not been examined in the context of code search. We present a method for generating natural-sounding clarifying questions using information extracted from function names and comments. Our method outperformed a keyword-based method for single-turn refinement in synthetic studies, and was associated with shorter search duration in human studies.