Generating Software Test Data by Particle Swarm Optimization

Abstract

Search-based method using meta-heuristic algorithms is a hot topic in automatic test data generation. In this paper, we develop an automatic test data generating tool named particle swarm optimization data generation tool (PSODGT). The PSODGT is characterized by the following two features. First, the PSODGT adopts the condition-decision coverage (C/DC) as the criterion of software testing, aiming to build an efficient test data set that covers all conditions. Second, the PSODGT uses a particle swarm optimization (PSO) approach to generate test data set. In addition, a new position initialization technique is developed for PSO. Instead of initializing the test data randomly, the proposed technique uses the previously-found test data that can reach the target condition as the initial positions so that the search speed of PSODGT can be further accelerated. The PSODGT is tested on four practical programs. Experimental results show that the proposed PSO approach is promising.