A static approach to automated test data generation in the presence of pointers

Abstract

The shape problem in the context of program testing refers to the problem of figuring out a shape of the input data structure required to cause the traversal of a given path. In this paper, we introduce a static approach to the shape problem. The approach converts the selected path into Static Single Assignment (SSA) form without pointer dereferences. This allows us to consider each program point in the selected path as a constraint involving equality or inequality. A simple, but illustrative example is given to explain our approach. © Springer-Verlag 2004.