Examining the effectiveness of using concolic analysis to detect code clones
Daniel E. Krutz, Samuel A. Malachowsky, Emad Shihab · 2015
During the initial construction and subsequent maintenance of an application, duplication of functionality is common, whether intentional or otherwise. This replicated functionality, known as a code clone, has a diverse set of causes and can have moderate to severe adverse effects on a software project in a variety of ways. A code clone is defined as multiple code fragments that produce similar results when provided the same input. While there is an array of powerful clone detection tools, most suffer from a variety of drawbacks including, most importantly, the inability to accurately and reliably detect the more difficult clone types.