A Code-Based Input Partitioning Method for Equivalence Class Testing

Equivalence class testing is traditionally a specification-based testing technique that derives test cases through partitioning the input domain of a program into different classes. This technique is widely used for testing all kinds of software systems. However, it is often difficult to cover all possible combinations of input conditions based on the available specification information. This paper proposes a novel input partitioning method based on the information extracted from the program source code to aid in the equivalence class testing. Based on the partition, two equivalence class testing techniques, white-box, and gray-box, are proposed. We have evaluated the proposed techniques through empirical studies on web-based database applications. Experiment results showed that the proposed techniques perform better than traditional equivalence class testing.