Dataflow testing of Java programs with DFC

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to present a tool supporting dataflow coverage testing of Java programs. Code based ("white box") approach to testing can be divided into two main types: control flow coverage and data flow coverage methods. Dataflow testing was introduced for structural programming languages and later adopted for object languages. Among many tools supporting code based testing of object programs, only JaBUTi and DFC (Data Flow Coverage) support dataflow testing of Java programs. DFC is a tool implemented at the Institute of Computer Science Warsaw University of Technology as an Eclipse plug-in. DFC finds all definition-uses (def-u) pairs in tested unit and provides also the def-u graph DUG for methods. After the execution of tests the information which def-u pairs were covered is shown. An example of usage of DFC and the comparison with JaBUTi data flow testing tool of Java program is also presented. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.