Automatic generation of basis test paths using variable length genetic algorithm

Path testing is the strongest coverage criterion in white box testing. Finding target paths is a key challenge in path testing. Genetic algorithms have been successfully used in many software testing activities such as generating test data, selecting test cases and test cases prioritization. In this paper, we introduce a new genetic algorithm for generating test paths. In this algorithm the length of the chromosome varies from iteration to another according to the change in the length of the path. Based on the proposed algorithm, we present a new technique for automatically generating a set of basis test paths which can be used as testing paths in any path testing method. The proposed technique uses a method to verify the independency of the generated paths to be included in the basis set of paths. In addition, this technique employs a method for checking the feasibility of the generated paths. We introduce new definitions for the key concepts of genetic algorithm such as chromosome representation, crossover, mutation, and fitness function to be compatible with path generation. In addition, we present a case study to show the efficiency of our technique. We conducted a set of experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed path generation technique. The results showed that the proposed technique causes substantial reduction in path generation effort, and that the proposed GA algorithm is effective in test path generation.