Paper Info
Title
Abstraction in Assertion-Based Test Oracles
Abstract
Yoonsik Cheon Department of Computer Science The University of Texas at El Paso El Paso, TX 79968-0518 ycheon@utep.edu Abstract Assertions can be used as test oracles. However, writ- ing effective assertions of right abstraction levels is difficult because on the one hand, detailed assertions are preferred for thorough testing (i.e., to detect as many errors as possi- ble), but on the other hand abstract assertions are preferred for readability, maintainability, and reusability. As asser- tions become a practical tool for testing and debugging pro- grams, this is an important and practical problem to solve for the effective use of assertions. We advocate the use of model variables--specification-only variables of which ab- stract values are given as mappings from concrete program states--to write abstract assertions for test oracles. We per- formed a mutation testing experiment to evaluate the effec- tiveness of the use of model variables in assertion-based test oracles. According to our experiment, assertions written in terms of model variables are as effective as assertions writ- ten without using model variables in detecting (injected) faults, and the execution time overhead of model variables are negligible. Our findings are applicable to other use of runtime checkable assertions.
Year
DOI
Venue
2007
10.1109/QSIC.2007.10
QSIC
Keywords
Field
DocType
effective assertion,assertions writ,assertion-based test oracle,assertion-based test oracles,abstract assertion,thorough testing,model variable,el paso el paso,mutation testing experiment,test oracle,effective use,assertion,formal specification,mutation testing,abstraction
Programming language,Abstraction,Computer science,Assertion,Oracle,Readability,Real-time computing,Formal specification,Reusability,Maintainability,Debugging
Conference
ISBN
Citations 
PageRank 
0-7695-3035-4
5
0.41
References 
Authors
17
1
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Yoonsik Cheon177056.20