SACL: Understanding and Combating Textual Bias in Code Retrieval with Semantic-Augmented Reranking and Localization

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Autores principales: Gupta, Dhruv, Lakshmy, Gayathri Ganesh, Xie, Yiqing
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Gupta, Dhruv
Lakshmy, Gayathri Ganesh
Xie, Yiqing
author_facet Gupta, Dhruv
Lakshmy, Gayathri Ganesh
Xie, Yiqing
contents Retrieval-Augmented Code Generation (RACG) is a critical technique for enhancing code generation by retrieving relevant information. In this work, we conduct an in-depth analysis of code retrieval by systematically masking specific features while preserving code functionality. Our discoveries include: (1) although trained on code, current retrievers heavily rely on surface-level textual features (e.g., docstrings, identifier names), and (2) they exhibit a strong bias towards well-documented code, even if the documentation is irrelevant. Based on our discoveries, we propose SACL, a framework that enriches textual information and reduces bias by augmenting code or structural knowledge with semantic information. Extensive experiments show that SACL substantially improves code retrieval (e.g., by 12.8% / 9.4% / 7.0% Recall@1 on HumanEval / MBPP / SWE-Bench-Lite), which also leads to better code generation performance (e.g., by 4.88% Pass@1 on HumanEval).
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_20081
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle SACL: Understanding and Combating Textual Bias in Code Retrieval with Semantic-Augmented Reranking and Localization
Gupta, Dhruv
Lakshmy, Gayathri Ganesh
Xie, Yiqing
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Retrieval-Augmented Code Generation (RACG) is a critical technique for enhancing code generation by retrieving relevant information. In this work, we conduct an in-depth analysis of code retrieval by systematically masking specific features while preserving code functionality. Our discoveries include: (1) although trained on code, current retrievers heavily rely on surface-level textual features (e.g., docstrings, identifier names), and (2) they exhibit a strong bias towards well-documented code, even if the documentation is irrelevant. Based on our discoveries, we propose SACL, a framework that enriches textual information and reduces bias by augmenting code or structural knowledge with semantic information. Extensive experiments show that SACL substantially improves code retrieval (e.g., by 12.8% / 9.4% / 7.0% Recall@1 on HumanEval / MBPP / SWE-Bench-Lite), which also leads to better code generation performance (e.g., by 4.88% Pass@1 on HumanEval).
title SACL: Understanding and Combating Textual Bias in Code Retrieval with Semantic-Augmented Reranking and Localization
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.20081