Forest Optimization-Based Test Case Generation for Multiple Paths With Metamorphic Relations

In general, multiple paths are covered by multiple runs, which is a time-consuming task. Metaheuristic techniques are widely used for path coverage. In order to reduce the time, an efficient method is proposed based on forest optimization algorithm (FOA) with metamorphic relations (MRs) that cover multiple paths at a time in one run, unlike the traditional search-based testing. In the proposed approach, initial test case is generated using FOA; the successive test cases are generated using MRs without undergoing several runs. The motive of using FOA is that the searching mechanism of this algorithm has resemblance with the branch/path coverage techniques of testing. To the best of the authors' knowledge, FOA has not been implemented in software testing. The experimental results are compared with three existing works. The efficiency of simply FOA is also shown to cover multiple paths. The results show that FOA with MRs is more efficient in terms of time consumption and number of paths covered.