Program Test Data Generation for Branch Coverage with Genetic Algorithm: Comparative Evaluation of A Maximization and Minimization Approach

摘要

In search based test data generation, the problem of test data generation is reduced to that of function minimization or maximization.Traditionally, for branch testing, the problem of test data generation has been formulated as a minimization problem. In this paper we define an alternate maximization formulation and experimentally compare it with the minimization formulation. We use a genetic algorithm as the search technique and in addition to the usual genetic algorithm operators we also employ the path prefix strategy as a branch ordering strategy and memory and elitism. Results indicate that there is no significant difference in the performance or the coverage obtained through the two approaches and either could be used in test data generation when coupled with the path prefix strategy, memory and elitism.