A dynamic approach of test data generation

Abstract

The author presents a dynamic approach to test data generation, in which the path selection stage is eliminated. In this approach, test data are derived on the basis of the actual execution of the program under test, of dynamic data flow analysis, and of function minimization methods. The approach starts by executing a program for an arbitrary program input. During program execution for each executed branch, a search procedure decides whether the execution should continue the current branch or whether an alternative branch should be taken. If an undesirable execution flow is observed at the current branch, then a real-valued function is associated with this branch, and function minimization search algorithms are used to automatically locate values of input variables which will change the flow of execution at this branch. In addition, dynamic data flow analysis is used to determine input variables which are responsible for the undesirable program behavior, leading to speedup of the search process.<>