Article,
Automated software test data generation
Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on, 16 (8): 870 -879 (August 1990)
DOI: 10.1109/32.57624
Abstract
An alternative approach to test-data generation based on actualexecution of the program under test, function-minimization methods anddynamic data-flow analysis is presented. Test data are developed for theprogram using actual values of input variables. When the program isexecuted, the program execution flow is monitored. If during programexecution an undesirable execution flow is observed thenfunction-minimization search algorithms are used to automatically locatethe values of input variables for which the selected path is traversed.In addition, dynamic data-flow analysis is used to determine those inputvariables responsible for the undesirable program behavior,significantly increasing the speed of the search process. The approachto generating test data is then extended to programs with dynamic datastructures and a search method based on dynamic data-flow analysis andbacktracking is presented. In the approach described, values of arrayindexes and pointers are known at each step of program execution; thisinformation is used to overcome difficulties of array and pointerhandling
