Third-Party Library Updates in 2,752 Mobile Apps with Technical Lag Analysis

An appendix dataset for a study on when, how, and why developers update third-party libraries in mobile applications. It contains data on 2,752 applications, their dependencies, and the results of technical lag and trend analyses. The data was compiled by Pasquale Salza and is available via paperswithcode.

Use Cases

• Analyze the frequency and patterns of dependency updates based on the technical lag and trends data.
• Study the categorization of dependencies extracted from mobile app source code.
• Investigate the relationship between commit history changes and library use patterns mentioned in the description.
• Visualize dependency evolution for specific applications using the provided graphical representations.

Strengths

• Covers 2,752 distinct mobile applications, providing a substantial sample size.
• Includes multiple data facets: app lists, dependencies, technical lag, and usage trends.
• Contains manually applied categorization for dependencies, suggesting a level of curation.

Limitations

• Row count, column definitions, and sample data are unknown, limiting suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

paperswithcode

Collection Method

Extracted from the source code of the considered mobile applications, with subsequent manual and automated analysis.