How to Refactor this Code? An Exploratory Study on Developer-ChatGPT Refactoring Conversations

Eman Abdullah Alomar, Anushkrishna Venkatakrishnan, Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer, Christian D. Newman, Ali Ouni

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Large Language Models (LLMs), like ChatGPT, have gained widespread popularity and usage in various software engineering tasks, including refactoring, testing, code review, and program comprehension. Despite recent studies delving into refactoring documentation in commit messages, issues, and code review, little is known about how developers articulate their refactoring needs when interacting with ChatGPT. In this paper, our goal is to explore conversations between developers and ChatGPT related to refactoring to better understand how developers identify areas for improvement in code and how ChatGPT addresses developers' needs. Our approach relies on text mining refactoring-related conversations from 17,913 ChatGPT prompts and responses, and investigating developers' explicit refactoring intention. Our results reveal that (1) developer-ChatGPT conversations commonly involve generic and specific terms/phrases; (2) developers often make generic refactoring requests, while ChatGPT typically includes the refactoring intention; and (3) various learning settings when prompting ChatGPT in the context of refactoring. We envision that our findings contribute to a broader understanding of the collaboration between developers and AI models.CCS CONCEPTS• Software Engineering → Software Quality; Refactoring.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2024 IEEE/ACM 21st International Conference on Mining Software Repositories, MSR 2024
Pages202-206
Number of pages5
ISBN (Electronic)9798400705878
DOIs
StatePublished - 2024
Event21st IEEE/ACM International Conference on Mining Software Repositories, MSR 2024 - Lisbon, Portugal
Duration: 15 Apr 202416 Apr 2024

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2024 IEEE/ACM 21st International Conference on Mining Software Repositories, MSR 2024

Conference

Conference21st IEEE/ACM International Conference on Mining Software Repositories, MSR 2024
Country/TerritoryPortugal
CityLisbon
Period15/04/2416/04/24

Keywords

  • ChatGPT
  • mining software repositories
  • Refactoring documentation

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