Path Testing Process
- Control Flow Graph:
Draw the corresponding control flow graph of the program in which all the executable paths are to be discovered. - Cyclomatic Complexity:
After the generation of the control flow graph, calculate the cyclomatic complexity of the program using the following formula.
McCabe's Cyclomatic Complexity = E - N + 2P
Where,
E = Number of edges in the control flow graph
N = Number of vertices in the control flow graph
P = Program factor
- Make Set:
Make a set of all the paths according to the control flow graph and calculate cyclomatic complexity. The cardinality of the set is equal to the calculated cyclomatic complexity. - Create Test Cases:
Create a test case for each path of the set obtained in the above step.
Path Testing in Software Engineering
Path Testing is a method that is used to design the test cases. In the path testing method, the control flow graph of a program is designed to find a set of linearly independent paths of execution. In this method, Cyclomatic Complexity is used to determine the number of linearly independent paths and then test cases are generated for each path.
It gives complete branch coverage but achieves that without covering all possible paths of the control flow graph. McCabe’s Cyclomatic Complexity is used in path testing. It is a structural testing method that uses the source code of a program to find every possible executable path.