[cfe-dev] C++ algorithm analysis tool

[Raphael Isemann via cfe-dev]

I feel the implementation of an algorithm in the STL and the
equivalent implementation written by the user are usually so different
in terms of syntax that the current clone detection won't work that
well. If we had a constraint for estimating semantic equality, then it
would be a different situation, but I don't expect an implementation
of this anytime soon :).

However, if we are satisfied with syntactic equality, then this can be
done in a few minutes with the clone detector infrastructure with
something like this pseudocode:

   detector.findClones(RecursiveTypeIIConstraint(),
MinFunctionBodyCount(1), MinComplexity(20));

This would detect code like this:

void bubblesort(int *array, int length) {
     for (int i = 0; i < length - 1; ++i)
        for (int j = 0; j < length - i - 1; ++j)
            if (array[j] > array[j + 1]) {
                int tmp = array[j];
                array[j] = array[j + 1];
                array[j + 1] = tmp;
            }
}

int main() {
     for (int i = 0; i < length - 1; ++i) // expect-warning{You could
call the function 'bubblesort' instead
        for (int j = 0; j < length - i - 1; ++j)
            if (array[j] > array[j + 1]) {
                int tmp = array[j];
                array[j] = array[j + 1];
                array[j + 1] = tmp;
            }
}

- Raphael

2017-04-04 10:35 GMT+02:00 Artem Dergachev <noqnoqneo at gmail.com>:
> +CC CloneDetector guys.
>
> Hmm, the idea of making body-farms and then using CloneChecker to find
> clones of synthesized bodies in the actual code looks curious and funny,
> though i'm not immediately seeing how is it superior to ASTMatchers.
>
>
>
> On 4/1/17 1:49 PM, Kirill Bobyrev via cfe-dev wrote:
>>
>>
>> Hi Chris,
>>
>> To my knowledge, there isn't.
>>
>> I don't recall where I got the idea, but I gave it a try last summer
>> trying to implement a clang-tidy check doing what you proposed. I didn't
>> have enough time to complete it, though, and I only managed to detect one or
>> two very simple patterns.
>>
>> After thinking about this idea for some time I found that clang-tidy might
>> be a perfect place for that, not sure whether a separate tool would be
>> beneficial. The task of detecting a specific pattern is very similar to what
>> clang-tidy checks do in a wide range of tasks. Also, there'd be a separate
>> heuristic set for each standard algorithm, which makes the partitioning into
>> different checks (for each popular standard library algorithm) natural.
>>
>> In my opinion, such checks would be useful, I'd be interested in seeing a
>> proof-of-concept of some sort.
>>
>> One more idea I have in mind: it might be interesting to try using
>> CloneChecker (a check of Clang Static Analyzer) to detect similar patterns
>> in a generic way, but I'm not sure how beneficial that would be in practice.
>> Still, might worth a try.
>>
>> +CC Alex, he might have some thoughts about this.
>>
>> Kind regards,
>> Kirill
>>
>>
>> On 01/04/17 02:42, Christopher Di Bella via cfe-dev wrote:
>>>
>>> Hey everyone,
>>>
>>> Just wondering if there's a clang tool that can analyse an algorithm to
>>> suggest where standard algorithms can be replace handwritten algos?
>>> E.g.
>>>
>>> int i = 0;
>>> for (; i < v.size(); ++i)
>>>    if (v[i] == expected)
>>>       break;
>>> if (i != v.size())
>>>    some_function(v[i]);
>>>
>>> Can be rewritten to
>>>
>>> auto i = find(v.begin(), v.end(), expected);
>>> if (i != v.end())
>>>    some_function(*i);
>>>
>>> or in C++17:
>>>
>>> if (auto i = find(v.begin(), v.end(), expected); i != v.end())
>>>    some_function(*i);
>>>
>>> If not, how difficult a task is it to write such a tool? Is there
>>> anything that one should take into special consideration while writing this
>>> tool? Do you think it would have a lot of use-cases? (I do, based on my
>>> company's code base, and code I have seen while marking assignments).
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Chris
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> cfe-dev mailing list
>>> cfe-dev at lists.llvm.org
>>> http://lists.llvm.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/cfe-dev
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>