Path Coverage for loops

[seah-minlong]

Just to clarify, when it is said that a loop can increase path coverage greatly, it is not really due to the loop itself but the fact that names can be of variable length right?

For instance, a fixed loop would only have 1 path. Is that correct?

void foo (String s) {
  for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
    print("Hello World");
  }
}

[gohsl99]

For your example, I think there is only one path because the for loop will iterate 10 times regardless.

[DennieDan]

Yes, I think you are right.

As per this example, I believe we need Integer.MAX_VALUE + 1 test cases:

• 1 test case for empty list of strings (length = 0)
• others are for lists of length from 1 to Integer.MAX_VALUE

[damithc]

@seah-minlong

Just to clarify, when it is said that a loop can increase path coverage greatly, it is not really due to the loop itself but the fact that names can be of variable length right?

Yes, specifically, a loop with a loop count that is not pre-determined.

For instance, a fixed loop would only have 1 path. Is that correct?

Yes, correct.

@DennieDan The image is missing in your comment.

For your example, I think there is only one path because the for loop will iterate 10 times regardless.

@gohsl99 Correct.

[seah-minlong]

Okay thank you prof!

[DennieDan]

@damithc I updated my image, it is actually the example given by @seah-minlong