Feasible path generation of weak mutation testing based on statistical analysis

doi:10.11897/SP.J.1016.2016.02355

	Feasible path generation of weak mutation testing based on statistical analysis
	Dang, Xiang-Ying 1,2; Gong, Dun-Wei 1,4; Yao, Xiang-Juan 3
	2016-11-01
发表期刊	Jisuanji Xuebao/Chinese Journal of Computers
ISSN	02544164
卷号	39 期号:11 页码:2355-2371
摘要	Mutation testing is a fault-based testing technique. The high cost, however, limits its widespread applications in practical testing. Papadakis et al. transformed the problem of weak mutation testing of a program into that of covering the true branches of mutant statements of another program, with the purpose of generating mutation test data by using previous methods of branch coverage. The converted program contains, however, a great number of mutant branches by using the above approach, thus having a difficulty in generating test data that cover these branches. If appropriate methods are employed to reduce the mutant branches in the converted program, and the reduced mutant branches are grouped according to the paths to which they belong, mutation test data with high quality will be generated by using previous methods of path coverage, hence improving the efficiency of weak mutation testing. Effective methods for generating feasible paths based on a program and its mutants are, however, of absence up to date. In view of this, this paper proposes an approach to generate feasible paths for weak mutation testing by considering the correlation of the true branches of mutant statements, with the purpose of killing all mutants by test data that cover all these feasible paths. To fulfill this task, the dominance relation of the true branches of mutant statements is first determined and employed to reduce the dominated true branches. Following that the non-dominated branches of mutant statements are instrumented into the program to form another program. The true branches of mutant statements that are generated by mutating the same statement are transformed into a new one based on their correlation. Then feasible sub-paths that contain these new branches and the original statement are produced based on the correlation among the original statement and the new branches. Finally, a correlation matrix is generated and reduced based on the execution of these sub-paths using statistical analysis, and one or more feasible paths that contain all these feasible sub-paths are obtained based the correlation matrix. The proposed method is applied to nine benchmarks or industrial programs, and compared with traditional algorithms. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can generate a small number of paths which cover all the mutant branches, with less time in executing the program. In addition, the sampling size involved in the proposed method has an influence on the number of feasible paths to some degree, whereas slightly impacts time in executing the program. © 2016, Science Press. All right reserved.
关键词	Matrix algebra Statistical methods Testing Feasible path Mutant branch Mutation testing Path coverage Weak mutation testing
DOI	10.11897/SP.J.1016.2016.02355
收录类别	EI
语种	中文
出版者	Science Press
EI入藏号	20164803060761
EI主题词	Software testing
EI分类号	723.5 Computer Applications - 921.1 Algebra - 922.2 Mathematical Statistics
来源库	Compendex
分类代码	723.5 Computer Applications - 921.1 Algebra - 922.2 Mathematical Statistics
引用统计	无
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	https://ir.lut.edu.cn/handle/2XXMBERH/113398
专题	兰州理工大学
作者单位	1.School of Information and Electrical Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou; Jiangsu; 221116, China; 2.School of Information and Electrical Engineering, Xuzhou Institute of Technology, Xuzhou; Jiangsu; 221000, China; 3.School of Science, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou; Jiangsu; 221116, China; 4.School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou; 730050, China
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Dang, Xiang-Ying,Gong, Dun-Wei,Yao, Xiang-Juan. Feasible path generation of weak mutation testing based on statistical analysis[J]. Jisuanji Xuebao/Chinese Journal of Computers,2016,39(11):2355-2371.
APA	Dang, Xiang-Ying,Gong, Dun-Wei,&Yao, Xiang-Juan.(2016).Feasible path generation of weak mutation testing based on statistical analysis.Jisuanji Xuebao/Chinese Journal of Computers,39(11),2355-2371.
MLA	Dang, Xiang-Ying,et al."Feasible path generation of weak mutation testing based on statistical analysis".Jisuanji Xuebao/Chinese Journal of Computers 39.11(2016):2355-2371.