Automated discovery of valid test strings from the web using dynamic regular expressions collation and natural language processing

Abstract

Classic approaches to test input generation - such as dynamic symbolic execution and search-based testing - are commonly driven by a test adequacy criterion such as branch coverage. However, there is no guarantee that these techniques will generate meaningful and realistic inputs, particularly in the case of string test data. Also, these techniques have trouble handling path conditions involving string operations that are inherently complex in nature. This paper presents a novel approach of finding valid values by collating suitable regular expressions dynamically that validate the format of the string values, such as an email address. The regular expressions are found using web searches tha..