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Survey on Learning-based Dynamic Fault Localization: From Traditional Machine Learning to Large Language Models

delete2026-05-23
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PRE
AI
C
Chunyan Liu
雷晏 (Yan Lei) *
H
Huan Xie
J
jinping Wang
Y
Yue Yu
D
David Lo
DOI:10.1145/3787202delete
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Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
Learning-based dynamic fault localization techniques play a crucial role in the field of software engineering. These techniques dynamically execute test cases to meticulously extract useful knowledge from the execution information in the program, with the aim of identifying fault locations by leveraging machine learning, deep learning, and large language models. Currently, there is already a flourishing body of research that is intensely focused on learning-based dynamic fault localization. Research literature can be categorized into two main aspects for learning-based dynamic fault localization: data-based enhancements (i.e., the datasets) and model-based enhancements (i.e., the suspiciousness algorithms). Thus, we conduct an extensive literature review on learning-based dynamic fault localization from the aspects of the data task and the model task. Among them, each task is divided into multiple sub-tasks in a systematic manner to comprehensively discuss the details. In addition, we analyze and summarize the datasets and metrics that have been widely used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed techniques in recent years, so that researchers can have an intuitive perception of them. We also discuss the present challenges and the directions for future research.
Keywords:
Fault localization
machine learning
deep learning
large language models
survey

Journal

ACM Computing Surveys cover
ACM Computing Surveys
IF:
28
Papers:
2.4K
Citations:
3.5W

Organization

C
chongqing university
Scholars:
1.0W
Papers: 3.9K
Citations: 1
P
Peng Cheng Laboratory
Scholars:
1.7K
Papers: 1.7K
Citations: 2.0K
S
singapore management university
Scholars:
312
Papers: 235
Citations: 0
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