On the completeness of test cases for atomic arithmetic expressions

Abstract

Most research on weak mutation testing focuses on predicate statements. Relative little attention has been paid to arithmetic expressions. In this paper we analyse the latter type of expression and prove that, given an atomic arithmetic expression, if it contains no variable or if the operator is the unary "++" or "--", then a single test case is sufficient and necessary to kill any fundamental mutant; otherwise, two test cases are sufficient and necessary.