Automated code review: Difference between revisions

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'''Automated code review''' software checks [[source code]] for compliance with a predefined set of rules or best practices.

==Overview==

[[Hammurapi code review tool]]

The use of analytical methods to inspect and review source code to detect bugs or security issues has been a standard development practice in both [[open source]] and [[commercial software]] domains.<ref>McIntosh, Shane, et al. "The impact of code review coverage and code review participation on software quality: A case study of the qt, vtk, and itk projects." Proceedings of the 11th Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories. 2014. {{doi|10.1145/2597073.2597076}}</ref> This process can be accomplished both manually and in an automated fashion.<ref name="SA_ref">{{cite web|title=An overview of the Static Code Analysis approach in Software Development | first1=Ivo | last1=Gomes | first2=Pedro | last2=Morgado | first3=Tiago | last3=Gomes | first4=Rodrigo | last4=Moreira | publisher= Universidade do Porto | year=2009 | url=http://paginas.fe.up.pt/~ei05021/TQSO%20-%20An%20overview%20on%20the%20Static%20Code%20Analysis%20approach%20in%20Software%20Development.pdf | accessdate=2010-10-03}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title= Tricorder: Building a Program Analysis Ecosystem | year=2015| url=https://research.google/pubs/pub43322/}}</ref> With automation, software tools provide assistance with the [[code review]] and inspection process. The review program or tool typically displays a list of warnings (violations of programming standards). A review program can also provide an automated or a programmer-assisted way to correct the issues found. This is a component for mastering easily software. This is contributing to the [[Software intelligence|Software Intelligence]] practice. This process is usually called "linting" since one of the first tools for static code analysis was called [[Lint_(software)|Lint]].

Some [[static code analysis]] tools can be used to help with automated code review. They do not compare favorably to manual reviews, however they can be done faster and more efficiently.{{Citation needed|date=January 2018|reason=Need evidence that manual reviews are better than automated}} These tools also encapsulate deep knowledge of underlying rules and semantics required to perform this type analysis such that it does not require the human code reviewer to have the same level of expertise as an expert human auditor.<ref name="SA_ref"/> Many [[Integrated Development Environments]] also provide basic automated code review functionality. For example the [[Eclipse (software)|Eclipse]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Collaborative Code Review Tool Development |publisher=www.eclipse.org |url=http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/collaborative-code-review-tool |accessdate=2010-10-13 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100401051935/http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/collaborative-code-review-tool |archivedate=2010-04-01 }}</ref> and [[Microsoft Visual Studio]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Code Review Plug-in for Visual Studio 2008, ReviewPal | date=4 November 2009 | publisher=www.codeproject.com | url=http://www.codeproject.com/KB/work/ReviewPal.aspx | accessdate=2010-10-13}}</ref> IDEs support a variety of plugins that facilitate code review.

Many [[Integrated Development Environment]]s have integrated basic automated code review functionality.

Next to [[static code analysis]] tools, there are also tools that analyze and [[Software visualization|visualize software structures]] and help humans to better understand these. Such systems are geared more to analysis because they typically do not contain a predefined set of rules to check software against. Some of these tools (e.g. [[Imagix 4D]], [[Resharper]], [[SonarJ]], Sotoarc, [[Structure101]], ACTool<ref>[https://sourceforge.net/projects/actool/ Architecture Consistency plugin for Eclipse]</ref>) allow one to define target architectures and enforce that target architecture constraints are not violated by the actual software implementation.

[[Hammurapi==Automated code review tool]]tools==

{{main|List of tools for static code analysis}}

==See also==

* [[Program analysis (computer science)]]

==References==

{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Automated Code Review}}

[[Category:Static program analysis tools]]

[[Category:Software review]]