Using Evolutionary Algorithms for Higher-Order Mutation Testing
Most software faults are complex higher-order mutants and their fixing needs more changes than first-order mutants. First-order mutants are created by inserting a single fault in the tested program. Higher-order mutants are created by injecting two or more faults in the tested program. Mutation testing has been developed to generate test inputs to kill the mutants of the tested program. Evolutionary algorithms have been effectively used in many software testing activities especially producing the required test inputs. In this paper, we introduce a genetic algorithm based technique to aid the automatic generation of test inputs for killing higher-order mutants. The proposed technique includes two policies: the first policy aims at killing the first-order mutants, and the second policy aims at killing the higher-order mutants. In addition, we introduce two new algorithms to generate the higher-order mutants. The paper also presents the results of the experiments that have been carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of our technique with its two policies. The results of the conducted empirical study showed that our proposed technique is more efficiency than random tests generation techniques in killing higher-order mutants.
Keywords: Mutation Testing, First-Order Mutants, Higher-Order Mutants, Test-Inputs Generation, Genetic Algorithms.
Download Full-Text
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ahmed S. Ghiduk
Ahmed S. Ghiduk is an assistant professor at Beni-Suef University, Egypt. He received the BSc degree from Cairo University, Egypt, in 1994, the MSc degree from Minia University, Egypt, in 2001, and a Ph.D. from Beni-Suef University, Egypt in joint with College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, in 2007. His research interests include software engineering especially search-based software testing, genetic algorithms, and ant colony and web application testing. Currently, Ahmed S. Ghiduk is an assistant professor at College of Computers and Information Technology, Taif University, Saudi Arabia.
Ahmed S. Ghiduk
Ahmed S. Ghiduk is an assistant professor at Beni-Suef University, Egypt. He received the BSc degree from Cairo University, Egypt, in 1994, the MSc degree from Minia University, Egypt, in 2001, and a Ph.D. from Beni-Suef University, Egypt in joint with College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, in 2007. His research interests include software engineering especially search-based software testing, genetic algorithms, and ant colony and web application testing. Currently, Ahmed S. Ghiduk is an assistant professor at College of Computers and Information Technology, Taif University, Saudi Arabia.
