The relationship between traceable code patterns and code smells

Abstract

Context: It is important to maintain software quality as a software system evolves. Managing code smells in source code contributes towards quality software. While metrics have been used to pinpoint code smells in source code, we present an empirical study on the correlation of code smells with class-level (micro pattern) and methodlevel (nano-pattern) traceable patterns of code. Objective: This study explores the relationship between code smells and class-level and method-level structural code constructs. Method: We extracted micro patterns at the class level and nano-patterns at the method level from three versions of Apache Tomcat and PersonalBlog and Roller from Standford SecuriBench and compared their distributions in code smell versus non-code smell classes and methods.Result: We found that DataManager, Record and Outline micro patterns are more frequent in classes having code smell compared to non-code smell classes in the applications we analyzed. localReader, localWriter, Switcher, and ArrReader nano-patterns are more frequent in code smell methods compared to the non-code smell methods. Conclusion: We conclude that code smells are correlated with both micro and nano-patterns.