Separation of concerns in existing code can be achieved by specific refactoring techniques. Modern refactoring tools support a number of well-known refactoring transformations, including method extraction. In this paper, we examine how method extraction can be improved through program slicing. Furthermore, we show how a generalization of such slice extraction can be applied to untangle existing code by extracting aspects.

 @inproceedings{976283,
    author = {Ran Ettinger and Mathieu Verbaere},
    title = {Untangling: a slice extraction refactoring},
    booktitle = {AOSD '04: Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Aspect-oriented software development},
    year = {2004},
    isbn = {1-58113-842-3},
    pages = {93--101},
    location = {Lancaster, UK},
    doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/976270.976283},
    publisher = {ACM Press},
    address = {New York, NY, USA}
 }