Can CodeQL summarize code ?

[Chakit22]

Can CodeQL help me to summarize a piece of code ? if so then what kind of query should be written for a javascript database.
Can CodeQL help me find the necessary files based on an issue ? Let' say I am giving it an issue, then can CodeQL help me find the relevant files to fix that issue ?

[mbg]

Hi @Chakit22 👋🏻

Thanks for the questions. You can read about what CodeQL is and can do for you in our documentation. If that does not answer your questions, could you be more specific about: what sort of summaries of the code you are hoping for? E.g. CodeQL could get you a list of all functions in the code. What representation would your issues be in?

[Chakit22]

Hey @mbg I read through the documentation and could not find my answer.
Well, basically let's say I have given it a text based query,

"According to the requirements, the ModifyFulfillmentService is using the EmailService to send emails messages through the integration layer (EmailHttpClient interface) when a SalesOrder is modified, however, the EmailHttpClientImpl just prints a message and the method ModifyFulfillmentService.buildEmailRequest is stubbed.

Modify the code so that buildEmailRequest will fill in the details from the SalesOrder input class, including the customer email id (from the SalesOrder), and that the EmailHttpClientImpl will actually send an e-mail message. Use configuration properties to specify the necessary SMTP properties such as host, port, username and password."

Given something like this, can we find all the files related to this particular issue in the codebase using CodeQL ?

[mbg]

Hi @Chakit22,

I don't think CodeQL is what you are looking for. CodeQL is a static analysis tool and uses queries written in a programming language called QL. Copilot may be more suited to what you are looking to do, I think.

[Chakit22]

Okay @mbg , so could you describe in detail as to what did you mentioned it is a static analysis tool ? Can it perform semantic search ? I know about Copilot, but wanted to know if CodeQL does that.

[mbg]

The first paragraph of this section in the documentation describes well what information you can query:

CodeQL databases contain queryable data extracted from a codebase, for a single language at a particular point in time. The database contains a full, hierarchical representation of the code, including a representation of the abstract syntax tree, the data flow graph, and the control flow graph.

By writing queries in QL, you can query information about your program's abstract syntax tree, data flow, and control flow.

[mbg]

I hope that's answered your questions, so I will go ahead and close this issue for now. Do feel free to follow-up if you have any further questions though.