Theory of fault-based predicate testing for computer programs

Predicates appear in both the specification and implementation of a program. One approach to software testing, referred to as predicate testing, is to require certain types of tests for a predicate. In this paper, three fault-based testing criteria are defined for compound predicates, which are pred...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on software engineering 1996-08, Vol.22 (8), p.552-562
Main Author: TAI, K.-C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Applied sciences
Boolean
Computer science
Computer science
control theory
systems
Computer systems performance. Reliability
Computers
Digital arithmetic
Exact sciences and technology
Fault detection
Fault tolerance
Guarantees
Materials testing
Software
Software engineering
Software testing
Studies
Testing
Variables
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Summary:Predicates appear in both the specification and implementation of a program. One approach to software testing, referred to as predicate testing, is to require certain types of tests for a predicate. In this paper, three fault-based testing criteria are defined for compound predicates, which are predicates with one or more AND/OR operators. BOR (boolean operator) testing requires a set of tests to guarantee the detection of (single or multiple) boolean operator faults, including incorrect AND/OR operators and missing/extra NOT operators. BRO (boolean and relational operator) testing requires a set of tests to guarantee the detection of boolean operator faults and relational operator faults (i.e., incorrect relational operators). BRE (boolean and relational expression) testing requires a set of tests to guarantee the detection of boolean operator faults, relational operator faults, and a type of fault involving arithmetical expressions. It is shown that for a compound predicate with n, n>0, AND/OR operators, at most n+2 constraints are needed for BOR testing and at most 2*n+3 constraints for BRO or BRE testing, where each constraint specifies a restriction on the value of each boolean variable or relational expression in the predicate. Algorithms for generating a minimum set of constraints for BOR, BRO, and BRE testing of a compound predicate are given, and the feasibility problem for the generated constraints is discussed. For boolean expressions that contain multiple occurrences of some boolean variables, how to combine BOR testing with the meaningful impact strategy (Weyuker et al., 1994) is described.
ISSN:0098-5589
1939-3520
DOI:10.1109/32.536956