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arXiv · 2504.21161

Automated Test Generation from Program Documentation Encoded in Code Comments

Giovanni Denaro·Luca Guglielmo
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Abstract

Documenting the functionality of software units with code comments, e.g., Javadoc comments, is a common programmer best-practice in software engineering. This paper introduces a novel test generation technique that exploits the code-comment documentation constructively. We originally address those behaviors as test objectives, which we pursue in search-based fashion. We deliver test cases with names and oracles properly contextualized on the target behaviors. Our experiments against a benchmark of 118 Java classes indicate that the proposed approach successfully tests many software behaviors that may remain untested with coverage-driven test generation approaches, and distinctively detects unknown failures.

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Giovanni Denaro, Luca Guglielmo. 2025-04-29. Automated Test Generation from Program Documentation Encoded in Code Comments. https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.21161

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