Test Case Generation for Object-Oriented Imperative Languages in CLP

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel CLP-based framework for automatic test case generation in object-oriented imperative languages, effectively handling complex language features without custom constraints, demonstrated on challenging Java programs.

Contribution

It presents the first fully CLP-based approach for TCG in OO imperative languages, managing features like inheritance and exceptions without specialized constraint operators.

Findings

Successfully applied to complex Java programs

Handles inheritance, virtual calls, and exceptions

No need for custom constraint operators

Abstract

Testing is a vital part of the software development process. Test Case Generation (TCG) is the process of automatically generating a collection of test cases which are applied to a system under test. White-box TCG is usually performed by means of symbolic execution, i.e., instead of executing the program on normal values (e.g., numbers), the program is executed on symbolic values representing arbitrary values. When dealing with an object-oriented (OO) imperative language, symbolic execution becomes challenging as, among other things, it must be able to backtrack, complex heap-allocated data structures should be created during the TCG process and features like inheritance, virtual invocations and exceptions have to be taken into account. Due to its inherent symbolic execution mechanism, we pursue in this paper that Constraint Logic Programming (CLP) has a promising unexploited application field in TCG. We will support our claim by developing a fully CLP-based framework to TCG of an OO imperative language, and by assessing it on a corresponding implementation on a set of challenging Java programs. A unique characteristic of our approach is that it handles all language features using only CLP and without the need of developing specific constraint operators (e.g., to model the heap).