Design of Test Data Generation Method for Dynamic- Functional Testing in Automatic Programming Assessment Using Flower Pollination Algorithm

Software testing refers to a process that improves the quality of software systems through bug detection, but software testing is one of the time and cost-consuming stages in software development. Hence, software test automation is regarded as a solution, which can facilitate heavy and laborious tasks of testing. Problem: Automatic generation of data with maximum coverage of program branches is regarded as an NP-complete optimization problem. Several heuristic algorithms have been proposed for this problem. Failure to maximise branch coverage, the poor success rate in optimal test data generation, and low stable results are the major demerits of the previous methods. Goal: Enhancing the branch coverage rate of the generated test data, enhancing the success rate in generating the test data with maximum coverage, and enhancing the stability and speed criteria are the main goals of this study. Method: In this study, a combination of grey wolf optimization algorithm and genetic algorithm have been used to automatically generate optimal test data. The proposed hybrid method (Fuzuli <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1</sup> ) tries to generate test data with maximum branch coverage at the software source code level. Results: The results obtained from the proposed algorithm were compared with those of the following algorithms: Shuffled Frog Leaping Algorithm (SFLA), Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), and Genetic Algorithm (GA).The results obtained from running a wide range of tests on standard benchmark programs showed that the proposed algorithm outperforms other algorithms with an average coverage of %99.98, a success rate of %99.97, and an average output of 2.86.

Test data generation is one of the most technically challenging steps of testing software, but most commercial systems currently incorporate very little automation for this step. This paper presents results from a project that is trying to find ways to incorporate test data generation into practical test processes. The results include a new procedure for automatically generating test data that incorporates ideas from symbolic evaluation, constraint-based testing, and dynamic test data generation. It takes an initial set of values for each input, and dynamically ‘pushes’ the values through the control-flow graph of the program, modifying the sets of values as branches in the program are taken. The result is usually a set of values for each input parameter that has the property that any choice from the sets will cause the path to be traversed. This procedure uses new analysis techniques, offers improvements over previous research results in constraint-based testing, and combines several steps into one coherent process. The dynamic nature of this procedure yields several benefits. Moving through the control flow graph dynamically allows path constraints to be resolved immediately, which is more efficient both in space and time, and more often successful than constraint-based testing. This new procedure also incorporates an intelligent search technique based on bisection. The dynamic nature of this procedure also allows certain improvements to be made in the handling of arrays, loops, and expressions; language features that are traditionally difficult to handle in test data generation systems. The paper presents the test data generation procedure, examples to explain the working of the procedure, and results from a proof-of-concept implementation. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In search-based structural testing, metaheuristic search techniques have been frequently used to automate the test data generation. In Genetic Algorithms (GAs) for example, test data are rewarded on the basis of an objective function that represents generally the number of statements or branches covered. However, owing to the wide diversity of possible test data values, it is hard to find the set of test data that can satisfy a specific coverage criterion. In this paper, we introduce the use of Novelty Search (NS) algorithm to the test data generation problem based on statement-covered criteria. We believe that such approach to test data generation is attractive because it allows the exploration of the huge space of test data within the input domain. In this approach, we seek to explore the search space without regard to any objectives. In fact, instead of having a fitness-based selection, we select test cases based on a novelty score showing how different they are compared to all other solutions evaluated so far.

T-way testing is a sampling approach for test data generation. Recently, adapting meta-heuristic algorithms for t-way testing is very attractive in order to find a minimum subset of test data that can test a system overall. As a consequence, several meta-heuristic algorithms have been used as the basis of t-way strategies. In order to guide software tester (and engineers in general) to select the best algorithm for the problem at hand, there is a need to evaluate and benchmark the performance of each strategy against common case studies. This paper presents a comparative study between two meta-heuristic strategies for t-way test data generation: Flower Pollination Algorithm (FPA) and Cuckoo Search (CS). Our experiments have performed on a real-world case study. Experimental results demonstrate that FPA appears to produce better results in most of the test cases in term of test suite size and convergence rate owing to its ability for controlling local and global search.

Here are simplified correlations that quickly provide correction factors for obtaining stabilized productivity from short-term flow tests. The only data needed to use the correlations are reservoir pressure, duration of test, and estimated permeability. Introduction For most studies involving gas wells and gas reservoirs, a very important consideration is the stabilized productivity or the ability to deliver gas for a productivity or the ability to deliver gas for a considerable time against a given backpressure. This knowledge is usually most needed in the early stages of development of an area, before extensive well test data or production information can be collected. Even in fields with considerable history, an engineer may frequently need a long-range performance prediction without having access to any data except the short-term test data normally required by state regulatory bodies. Short-term test data typified by a four-point back pressure with only 1 or 2 hours' flow on a point, or pressure with only 1 or 2 hours' flow on a point, or even a one-point 24-hour test may be grossly in error in low permeability reservoirs. Much of our nation's gas reserves is contained in the San Juan, Anadarko and Arkoma basins, which have the common characteristic of low permeability. In these areas it is not at all unusual for a well to require 30 days' flowing time to reach stabilization. Use of short-term test data for such wells would obviously lead to poor-quality estimates of either producing rates or reserves. The long-term flow test, to actually achieve stable flow, may be impractical for any of several reasons. The next best alternative would probably be two-rate flow tests. These require collection of detailed and closely controlled test data and can be costly even though much less time-consuming than the long-term flow to stable conditions. Another possible approach would be to determine interwell permeability and a skin factor from a pressure buildup test. Substitution of these factors with estimates of other reservoir parameters in the Darcy steady-state flow equation parameters in the Darcy steady-state flow equation would provide a reasonable estimate of stable flow capacity. In the absence of adequate field test data to define stabilized producing capacity, a stabilization factor to apply to short-term flow data would be useful; and that is the subject of this paper. For a stabilization factor to be most useful, it should be determinable with a minimum of field test data and calculation and still retain a reasonable degree of accuracy. Correlations have been developed that fulfill the requirement of minimum data and calculation. A check of the correlations with test data from several fields indicates a fair degree of accuracy. Basis for Correlations The well known Darcy steady-state flow equation neglecting turbulence may be written for gas wells as follows: (1) This equation and all others here are in practical field units and the terms are in the nomenclature. In the equation s is the skin factor defined by van Everdingen. JPT P. 537

Software testing is the primary phase, which is performed during software development and it is carried by a sequence of instructions of test inputs followed by expected output.The Harmony Search (HS) algorithm is based on the improvisation process of music.In comparison to other algorithms, the HSA has gain popularity and superiority in the field of evolutionary computation.When musicians compose the harmony through different possible combinations of the music, at that time the pitches are stored in the harmony memory and the optimization can be done by adjusting the input pitches and generate the perfect harmony.The test case generation process is used to identify test cases with resources and also identifies critical domain requirements.In this paper, the role of Harmony search meta-heuristic search technique is analyzed in generating random test data and optimized those test data.Test data are generated and optimized by applying in a case study i.e. a withdrawal task in Bank ATM through Harmony search.It is observed that this algorithm generates suitable test cases as well as test data and gives brief details about the Harmony search method.It is used for test data generation and optimization.

One of the ways of test data generation is using the path-oriented (path-wise) test data generator. This generator takes the program code and test adequacy criteria as input and generates the test data in order to satisfy the adequacy criteria. One of the problems of this generator in test data generation is the lack of attention to generating the diagnostic test data. In this paper a new approach has been proposed for path-oriented test data generation and by utilizing it, test data is generated automatically realizing the goal of discovering more important errors in the least amount of time. Since that some of the instructions of any programming language are more error-prone, so the paths that contain these instructions are selected for perform test data generation process. Then, the input domains of these paths variables are divided by a divide-and-conquer algorithm to the subdomains. A set of different subdomains is called hyper cuboids, and test data will be generated by these hyper cuboids. We apply our method in some programs, and compare it with some previous methods. Experimental results show proposed approach outperforms same previous approaches.

Mutation testing is a powerful software testing technique. However, it is difficult to obtain test data for killing a large number of mutants, especially for hard-to-kill mutants. Mutant branch is formed by an original statement of a program under test and its mutated statement. The true branch of a mutant branch is covered by a test datum, suggesting the corresponding mutant is killed under the criterion of weak mutation testing. This article focuses on efficiently generating test data for a large number of mutant branches. When generating test data using a search-based method, the size of the search domain is a determining factor affecting the search performance. The key observation is that only partial input variables affect whether a mutant will be killed, so the search domain can be reduced by deleting irrelevant variables. Along this line, we first group the mutant branches based on their relevant input variables, followed by formulating a multi-task optimization model of test data generation for the grouped mutant branches, in which the relevant input variables are taken as the decision variables. Finally, a multi-population genetic algorithm with individual sharing is employed to generate test data by multi-tasking. The experiments based on eight programs of various sizes show that removing related variable helps reduce the search domain, and the efficiency of test data generation by grouping and multitasking is improved.

Application of Negative Selection Algorithm (NSA) for test data generation of path testing

The application of metaheuristic search techniques in test data generation has been extensively investigated in recent years. Most studies, however, have concentrated on the application of such techniques in structural testing. The use of search-based techniques in functional testing is less frequent, the main cause being the implicit nature of the specification. This paper investigates the use of search-based techniques for functional testing, having the specification in form of a state machine. Its purpose is to generate input data for chosen paths in a state machine, so that the parameter values provided to the methods satisfy the corresponding guards and trigger the desired transitions. A general form of a fitness function for an individual path is presented and this approach is empirically evaluated using three search techniques: simulated annealing, genetic algorithms and particle swarm optimization.

In software testing process, test data generation represents an important step for high quality software, even for mobile devices. As proposed in previous works, a potential source for random data generation is represented by the UI layout files that are used for almost all mobile platforms (Android, iOS, Windows Phone/Mobile). This paper continues the previous work and presents a test data generation system based on Android layout files. The test data generator uses DSL files as input and generates test data that conform to several testing principles. The generated test data could be stored in XML files or any format required by the testing frameworks.

Software testing is meant to increase confidence in the correctness of software. Due to time, cost and other resource constraints, manual testing is highly impractical and undesirable, especially for the increasingly large sized software being developed these days. Therefore, there is a need to automate the testing process. This calls for the development of a time-efficient technique to automatically generate optimal test data. This paper introduces a novel approach to automated test data generation for software programs using a combination of heuristics involving Cuckoo and Tabu Search. The experimental results have shown a high degree of improvement with respect to the conventional Genetic Algorithm based technique.

The use of metaheuristic search techniques for the automatic generation of test data has been a burgeoning interest for many researchers in recent years. Previous attempts to automate the test gene...

Automated test data generation is a challenging problem for researchers in the area of software testing. Up until now, most of the work on test data generation is at unit level. Until level test data generation involves the execution of test path at unit level where interaction with other components is minimum. Test data generation for unit testing involves a single path and there is no usage of formal and actual parameters. The problem of automated test data generation becomes very challenging when we move to other levels of testing including integration testing and system level testing. At integration level, the variables are passed as arguments to other components and variables change their names; also multiple paths are executed from different components to ensure proper functionality. Recently evolutionary approaches have been proven a powerful tool for test data generation. In this paper, we have proposed a novel approach for test data generation for coupling based integration testing using particle swarm optimization. Up until now, there is no research for test data generation for coupling based integration testing using particle swarm optimization. Our approach takes the coupling path as input, containing different sub paths, and generates the test data using particle swarm optimization. We have also proposed architecture of tool for automation of our approach. In future, we will implement our proposed approach and will perform different experiments to prove its significance.

On the relationship between two control-flow coverage criteria: all JJ-paths and MCDC