
Test Adequacy Assessment
7.4 MUTATION OPERATORS
In the previous sections, we gave examples of mutations obtained by
making different kinds of changes to the program under test. Up un-
til now, we have generated mutants in an ad hoc manner. However, there
exists a systematic method, and a set of guidelines, for the generation of
mutants, that can be automated. One such systematic method and a set
of guidelines are described in this section. We begin our discussion by
learning what is a mutation operator and how is it used.
A mutation operator is a generative device. Other names used for mu-
tation operators include mutagenic operator, mutant operator