Evaluation of Deletion Mutation Operators in Mutation Testing of C# Programs

Deletion mutation operators were endorsed to be beneficial in effective evaluation of tests for C and Java in comparison to traditional structural mutation operators. They were also supposed to generate fewer equivalent mutants. In this work we present evaluation of deletion mutation operators in the context of structural and object-oriented operators used in first and second order mutation testing of C# programs. Deletion operators could surpass standard mutation operators in the lower number of generated mutants and decreased mutation testing time. Experiments on C# programs were conducted on statement and operator deletion mutation operators. Considering mutation time, it could be profitable to replace other structural mutation operators with the deletion ones, although there are no distinctive results in reduction of the number of equivalent mutants.

[1]  Shweta Rani,et al.  An Approach for Test Data Generation Based on Genetic Algorithm and Delete Mutation Operators , 2015, 2015 Second International Conference on Advances in Computing and Communication Engineering.

[2]  Roland H. Untch.  On reduced neighborhood mutation analysis using a single mutagenic operator , 2009, ACM-SE 47.

[3]  Macario Polo,et al.  Mutation Testing Cost Reduction Techniques: A Survey , 2010, IEEE Software.

[4]  A. Jefferson Offutt,et al.  Inter-class mutation operators for Java , 2002, 13th International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering, 2002. Proceedings..

[5]  Mark Harman,et al.  An Analysis and Survey of the Development of Mutation Testing , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.

[6]  Mark Harman,et al.  Higher Order Mutation Testing , 2009, Inf. Softw. Technol..

[7]  A. Jefferson Offutt,et al.  Empirical Evaluation of the Statement Deletion Mutation Operator , 2013, 2013 IEEE Sixth International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation.

[8]  Gregg Rothermel,et al.  An experimental determination of sufficient mutant operators , 1996, TSEM.

[9]  Yves Le Traon,et al.  Trivial Compiler Equivalence: A Large Scale Empirical Study of a Simple, Fast and Effective Equivalent Mutant Detection Technique , 2015, 2015 IEEE/ACM 37th IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering.

[10]  A. Jefferson Offutt,et al.  An Analysis of OO Mutation Operators , 2011, 2011 IEEE Fourth International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation Workshops.

[11]  Anna Derezinska.  Advanced mutation operators applicable in C# programs , 2006, SET.

[12]  Richard Torkar,et al.  Overcoming the Equivalent Mutant Problem: A Systematic Literature Review and a Comparative Experiment of Second Order Mutation , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.

[13]  A. Jefferson Offutt,et al.  Designing Deletion Mutation Operators , 2014, 2014 IEEE Seventh International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation.

[14]  Lech Madeyski,et al.  Judy - a mutation testing tool for Java , 2010, IET Softw..

[15]  Anna Derezinska,et al.  Quality Evaluation of Object-Oriented and Standard Mutation Operators Applied to C# Programs , 2012, TOOLS.

[16]  A. Jefferson Offutt,et al.  Constraint-Based Automatic Test Data Generation , 1991, IEEE Trans. Software Eng..

[17]  Dana Angluin,et al.  Two notions of correctness and their relation to testing , 1982, Acta Informatica.

[18]  A. Jefferson Offutt,et al.  Establishing Theoretical Minimal Sets of Mutants , 2014, 2014 IEEE Seventh International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation.

[19]  A. Jefferson Offutt,et al.  Experimental Evaluation of SDL and One-Op Mutation for C , 2014, 2014 IEEE Seventh International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation.

[20]  Inmaculada Medina-Bulo,et al.  Class mutation operators for C++ object-oriented systems , 2015, Ann. des Télécommunications.

[21]  Jane Huffman Hayes,et al.  Validation of Software Testing Experiments: A Meta-Analysis of ICST 2013 , 2014, 2014 IEEE Seventh International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation.

[22]  Anna Derezinska,et al.  Object-Oriented Testing Capabilities and Performance Evaluation of the C# Mutation System , 2009, CEE-SET.

[23]  Anna Derezinska,et al.  Mutation Testing Process Combined with Test-Driven Development in .NET Environment , 2015, DepCoS-RELCOMEX.