Automatic Path-Oriented Test Data Generation Using a Multi-population Genetic Algorithm

Automatic path-oriented test data generation is an undecidable problem and genetic algorithm (GA) has been used to test data generation since 1992. In favor of MATLAB, a multi-population genetic algorithm (MPGA) was implemented, which selects individuals for free migration based on their fitness values. Applying MPGA to generating path-oriented test data generation is a new and meaningful attempt. After depicting how to transform path-oriented test data generation into an optimization problem, basic process flow of path-oriented test data generation using GA was presented. Using a triangle classifier as program under test, experimental results show that MPGA based approach can generate path-oriented test data more effectively and efficiently than simple GA based approach does.