DOI: https://doi.org/10.15368/theses.2019.9
Available at: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/2032
Date of Award
3-2019
Degree Name
MS in Computer Science
Department/Program
Computer Science
Advisor
John Clements
Abstract
Testing code is important, but writing test cases can be time consuming, particularly for beginning programmers who are already struggling to write an implementation. We present TestBuilder, a system for test case generation which uses an SMT solver to generate inputs to reach specified lines in a function, and asks the user what the expected outputs would be for those inputs. The resulting test cases check the correctness of the output, rather than merely ensuring the code does not crash. Further, by querying the user for expectations, TestBuilder encourages the programmer to think about what their code ought to do, rather than assuming that whatever it does is correct. We demonstrate, using mutation testing of student projects, that tests generated by TestBuilder perform better than merely compiling the code using Python’s built-in compile function, although they underperform the tests students write when required to achieve 100% test coverage.