Exploring Test Suite Coverage of Large Language Model–Enhanced Unit Test Generation
A Study on the Ability of Large Language Models to Improve the Understandability of Generated Unit Tests Without Compromising Coverage
A. Drăgoi (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)
Andy Zaidman – Mentor (TU Delft - Software Technology)
A. Deljouyi – Mentor (TU Delft - Software Engineering)
A. Katsifodimos – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Data-Intensive Systems)
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Abstract
Automated software testing is a frequently studied topic in specialized literature. Search-based software testing tools, like EvoSuite, can generate test suites using genetic algorithms without the developer’s input. Large Language Models (LLMs) have recently attracted significant attention in the software engineering domain for their potential to automate test generation. UTGen, a tool integrating LLMs with EvoSuite, produces more understandable tests than EvoSuite; however, the generated tests suffer a coverage drop.
To streamline bug detection by developers, we propose UTGenCov, a concept that focuses on improving the understandability of EvoSuite-generated tests without compromising on coverage. This approach builds upon UTGen by thoroughly analyzing the reasons behind the decrease in coverage and proposing an alternative approach.
Our investigation determined that the leading cause of coverage reduction in UTGen is LLM hallucination in the Understandability phase. UTGenCov aims to address hallucinations by providing the source code of the methods used in the test to the LLM. Yet, our experiment results indicate inconsistent performance and a further decrease in branch coverage of 0.74% compared to UTGen.