A similarity metric for the inputs of OO programs and its application in adaptive random testing
Random testing (RT) has been identified as one of the most popular testing techniques, due to its simplicity and ease of automation. Adaptive random testing (ART) has been proposed as an enhancement to RT, improving its fault-detection effectiveness by evenly spreading random test inputs across the...
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| Format: | Article |
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Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
2017
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47713/ |
| _version_ | 1848797611517018112 |
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| author | Chen, Jinfu Kuo, Fei-Ching Chen, Tsong Yueh Towey, Dave Su, Chenfei Huang, Rubing |
| author_facet | Chen, Jinfu Kuo, Fei-Ching Chen, Tsong Yueh Towey, Dave Su, Chenfei Huang, Rubing |
| author_sort | Chen, Jinfu |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Random testing (RT) has been identified as one of the most popular testing techniques, due to its simplicity and ease of automation. Adaptive random testing (ART) has been proposed as an enhancement to RT, improving its fault-detection effectiveness by evenly spreading random test inputs across the input domain. To achieve the even spreading, ART makes use of distance measurements between consecutive inputs. However, due to the nature of object-oriented software (OOS), its distance measurement can be particularly challenging: Each input may involve multiple classes, and interaction of objects through method invocations. Two previous studies have reported on how to test OOS at a single-class level using ART. In this study, we propose a new similarity metric to enable multiclass level testing using ART. When generating test inputs (for multiple classes, a series of objects, and a sequence of method invocations), we use the similarity metric to calculate the distance between two series of objects, and between two sequences of method invocations. We integrate this metric with ART and apply it to a set of open-source OO programs, with the empirical results showing that our approach outperforms other RT and ART approaches in OOS testing. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:06:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-47713 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:06:38Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-477132020-04-29T15:47:44Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47713/ A similarity metric for the inputs of OO programs and its application in adaptive random testing Chen, Jinfu Kuo, Fei-Ching Chen, Tsong Yueh Towey, Dave Su, Chenfei Huang, Rubing Random testing (RT) has been identified as one of the most popular testing techniques, due to its simplicity and ease of automation. Adaptive random testing (ART) has been proposed as an enhancement to RT, improving its fault-detection effectiveness by evenly spreading random test inputs across the input domain. To achieve the even spreading, ART makes use of distance measurements between consecutive inputs. However, due to the nature of object-oriented software (OOS), its distance measurement can be particularly challenging: Each input may involve multiple classes, and interaction of objects through method invocations. Two previous studies have reported on how to test OOS at a single-class level using ART. In this study, we propose a new similarity metric to enable multiclass level testing using ART. When generating test inputs (for multiple classes, a series of objects, and a sequence of method invocations), we use the similarity metric to calculate the distance between two series of objects, and between two sequences of method invocations. We integrate this metric with ART and apply it to a set of open-source OO programs, with the empirical results showing that our approach outperforms other RT and ART approaches in OOS testing. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 2017-06-30 Article PeerReviewed Chen, Jinfu, Kuo, Fei-Ching, Chen, Tsong Yueh, Towey, Dave, Su, Chenfei and Huang, Rubing (2017) A similarity metric for the inputs of OO programs and its application in adaptive random testing. IEEE Transactions on Reliability, 66 (2). pp. 373-402. ISSN 0018-9529 Adaptive random testing (ART); Method invocation; Object distance; Object-oriented software (OOS) testing; Test input distance https://doi.org/10.1109/tr.2016.2628759 doi:10.1109/tr.2016.2628759 doi:10.1109/tr.2016.2628759 |
| spellingShingle | Adaptive random testing (ART); Method invocation; Object distance; Object-oriented software (OOS) testing; Test input distance Chen, Jinfu Kuo, Fei-Ching Chen, Tsong Yueh Towey, Dave Su, Chenfei Huang, Rubing A similarity metric for the inputs of OO programs and its application in adaptive random testing |
| title | A similarity metric for the inputs of OO programs and its application in adaptive random testing |
| title_full | A similarity metric for the inputs of OO programs and its application in adaptive random testing |
| title_fullStr | A similarity metric for the inputs of OO programs and its application in adaptive random testing |
| title_full_unstemmed | A similarity metric for the inputs of OO programs and its application in adaptive random testing |
| title_short | A similarity metric for the inputs of OO programs and its application in adaptive random testing |
| title_sort | similarity metric for the inputs of oo programs and its application in adaptive random testing |
| topic | Adaptive random testing (ART); Method invocation; Object distance; Object-oriented software (OOS) testing; Test input distance |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47713/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47713/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47713/ |