How do Execution Features Improve Statistical Fault Localization? An Empirical Study

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2606.30324v1
• Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2026 14:07:47 GMT
• Title: How do Execution Features Improve Statistical Fault Localization? An Empirical Study
• Abstract summary: This study evaluates whether augmenting Statistical fault localization with execution features improves localization accuracy and developer-oriented inspection effort.<n>We extract execution features with EFDD for all Tests4Py subjects, train per-subject random forests, map importances to source lines, and combine the resulting weights with established SFL formulas.
• Score: 5.85833888070275
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Automated fault localization helps developers find faults in large code bases. Statistical fault localization (SFL) ranks suspicious lines from pass/fail spectra, but line execution alone misses information like data-flow, values, or branch conditions that explain why a failure occurs. This study evaluates whether augmenting SFL with execution features improves localization accuracy and developer-oriented inspection effort. We extract execution features with EFDD for all Tests4Py subjects, train per-subject random forests, map importances to source lines, and combine the resulting weights with established SFL formulas. The evaluation measures reference-patch accuracy, line- and function-level effort, robustness, and feasibility using a confounder-adjusted mixed-effects model, corroborated by paired statistical tests and outcome-neutral quality checks.

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