Author(s)

T.Y. Chen & J.Q. Mao

Abstract

For the studies on the data flow oriented selection of test data [4], [5], [6], [8], the selection strategies are all based on the intuition that an incorrect definition could never be uncovered if its use is not tested. In this paper, we are proposing another data flow oriented selection strategy based on the intuition that errors tend to be clustered together and are more likely to be associated with the improper or bad programming practice. It has been found that our strategy is complementary to [4], [5], [6] and [8], and can be incorporated at nominal overheads with Laski and Korel's strategy [5]. INTRODUCTION The technique of data flow analysis was originally used in compiler object code optimization [1]. Then, it has been used in program testing, to detect data flow anomalies [2], [7], and to select test data [4], [5].

Keywords