TY  - JOUR
T1  - SPI: Similar Patch Identifier for Automated Program Repair
AU  - Jang, Sechang 
AU  - Kim, Seongbin 
AU  - Choi, Junhyeok 
AU  - Kim, Jindae 
AU  - Nam, Jaechang 
JO  - Journal of KIISE, JOK
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/1/14
DO  - 10.5626/JOK.2025.52.2.152
KW  - automated program repair
KW  - similar patch
KW  - debugging
KW  - search space
AB  - The primary challenge in Automated Program Repair (APR) techniques is the size of search space. In this study, we introduce a novel approach called Similar Patch Identifier (SPI), which reduces the search space by leveraging the similarities among bug-introducing changes and suggesting suitable repair operators. We evaluate this approach using the existing context-based APR tool, ConFix, and the Java defect benchmark, Defects4J. Our experiments revealed that, although SPI narrowed the search space to 10 candidate bug-fixing commits for each defect, it successfully generated meaningful patches for four bugs that ConFix was unable to repair.