DocumentCode :
2602060
Title :
Generating program inputs for database application testing
Author :
Pan, Kai ; Wu, Xintao ; Xie, Tao
Author_Institution :
Univ. of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA
fYear :
2011
fDate :
6-10 Nov. 2011
Firstpage :
73
Lastpage :
82
Abstract :
Testing is essential for quality assurance of database applications. Achieving high code coverage of the database application is important in testing. In practice, there may exist a copy of live databases that can be used for database application testing. Using an existing database state is desirable since it tends to be representative of real-world objects´ characteristics, helping detect faults that could cause failures in real-world settings. However, to cover a specific program code portion (e.g., block), appropriate program inputs also need to be generated for the given existing database state. To address this issue, in this paper, we propose a novel approach that generates program inputs for achieving high code coverage of a database application, given an existing database state. Our approach uses symbolic execution to track how program inputs are transformed before appearing in the executed SQL queries and how the constraints on query results affect the application´s execution. One significant challenge in our problem context is the gap between program-input constraints derived from the program and from the given existing database state; satisfying both types of constraints is needed to cover a specific program code portion. Our approach includes novel query formulation to bridge this gap. Our approach is loosely integrated into Pex, a state-of-the-art white-box testing tool for .NET from Microsoft Research. Empirical evaluations on two real database applications show that our approach assists Pex to generate program inputs that achieve higher code coverage than the program inputs generated by Pex without our approach´s assistance.
Keywords :
database management systems; program compilers; program testing; query processing; software fault tolerance; .NET; Microsoft Research; Pex; code coverage; database application testing; executed SQL queries; fault detection; program code portion; program input constraints; program input generation; quality assurance; query formulation; query results; symbolic execution; white box testing tool; Concrete; Context; Copper; Databases; Feeds; Loans and mortgages; Testing;
fLanguage :
English
Publisher :
ieee
Conference_Titel :
Automated Software Engineering (ASE), 2011 26th IEEE/ACM International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Lawrence, KS
ISSN :
1938-4300
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4577-1638-6
Type :
conf
DOI :
10.1109/ASE.2011.6100152
Filename :
6100152
Link To Document :
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