Computers as Components, 2nd Edition

276 CHAPTER 5 Program Design and Analysis

There are many possible strategies for testing nested loops. One thing to keep

in mind is which loops have fixed vs. variable numbers of iterations. Beizer [Bei90]

suggests an inside-out strategy for testing loops with multiple variable iteration

bounds. First,concentrate on testing the innermost loop as above—the outer loops

should be controlled to their minimum numbers of iterations. After the inner loop

has been thoroughly tested, the next outer loop can be tested more thoroughly,

with the inner loop executing a typical number of iterations. This strategy can be

repeated until the entire loop nest has been ...