White Box Testing Tutorial – 6: DD Path Testing: Case of a Quadratic Equation

Objective of the Tutorial: To draw a Flow Graph, a DD Graph, calculation of Cyclomatic Complexity
V(G) and find out all independent paths from the DD paths graph, for the case of quadratic equation ax2
+ bx + c = 0 where three coefficients a, b and c roots are calculated. The output may be real roots,
imaginary roots or equal roots or even the equation may not be a quadratic equation.

When we have a flow graph, we can easily draw another graph that is known as decision-to-decision or
(DD) path graph, wherein we lay our main focus on the decision nodes only. The nodes of the flow graph
are combined into a single node it they are in sequence.

Process of constructing the DD Graph leading to computation of Cyclomatic Complexity goes like
this:

Step – 1: Start writing the following program

# include <stdio.h>

# include <conio.h>

# include <math.h>

(1) int main ( )

(2) {

(3) int a, b, c, d, boolean = 0;

(4) double D;

(5) printf (“\n\t Enter `a' coefficient :");

(6) scanf ("%d", & a) ;

(7) printf ("\n\t Enter `b' coefficient :“);

(8) scanf ("%&d", & b);

(9) printf (“\n\t Enter `c' coefficient :“);

(10) scanf, ("%d”, & c) ;

(11) if ((a > =0) && (a < = 00) && (b > = 0) && (b < =100) && (c > =0) && (c < =100)) {

(12) boolean = 1;
(13) if (a = = 0) {

(14) boolean = -1;

(15) }

(16) }

(17) if (boolean = = 1) {

(18) d = b * b – 4 * a * c;

(19) if (d = = 0) {

(20) printf ("roots are equal and are r1= r2 = %f - b/(2 * float)&));

(21) }

(22) else if (d > 0) {

(23) D = sqrt (d);

(24) printf ("roots are real and are r1=%f and r2=%f; (-b - D)/(2 * a), (-b + D)/(2 * a));

(25) }

(26) else {

(27) D = sqrt (-d) / (2 * a);

(28) printf ("roots are imaginary");

(29) }

(30) }

(31) else if (boolean = = -1) {

(32) printf ("Not a quadratic equation");

(33) }

(34) else {

(35) printf ("Invalid input range ...);

(36) }

(37) getch ( ):

(38) return 0;

(39) }

Step – 2: Draw the following Flow Graph

Step – 3: Draw the following DD Path Graph

Since, nodes 1-10 are sequential nodes in the above flow graph, hence they are merged together as a single node – “a”.

Since node –“11” is a decision node, thus we cannot merge it any more.

Likewise we can go on deciding the merging of nodes & arrive at the following DD Path Graph
We get following decision table.

Nodes in Corresponding Justification

Flow Graph Nodes of DD
Path Graph
1-10 a Are Sequential Nodes

11 b Decision Nodes

12 c Intermediate Node

13 d Decision Node

14,15 e Sequential Nodes

16 f Two Edges Combined

17 g Decision Node

18 h Intermediate Node

19 i Decision Node

20, 21 j Sequential Node

22 k Decision Node

23, 24, 25 I Sequential Nodes

26, 27, 28, m Sequential Nodes

29
30 n Three Edges Combined

31 o Decision Node

32, 33 p Sequential Nodes

34, 35, 36 q Sequential Nodes

37 r Three edges Combined

38, 39 s Sequential Node

Step – 4: Calculation of Cyclomatic Complexity V(G) by three methods

Method – 1: V(G) = e – n + 2 ( Where “e” are edges & “n” are nodes)
V(G) = 24– 19+ 2 = 5 + 2 = 7

Method – 2: V(G) = P + 1 (Where P – No. of predicate nodes with out degree = 2)

V(G) = 6 + 1 = 7 (Nodes d, b, g, I, o & k are predicate nodes with 2 outgoing edges)

Method – 3: V(G) = Number of enclosed regions + 1 = 6+1=7

( Here R1, R2, R3, R4, R5 & R6 are the enclosed regions and 1 corresponds to one outer region)

V(G) = 7 and is same by all the three methods.

Step – 5: Identification of the basis-set with Seven Paths

Path 1: a–b–g–o–q– r–s

Path 2: a–b–g–o–p– r–s

Path 3: a–b–c–d–f–g–o–q– r–s

Path 4: a–b–c–d–e–f–g–o–p– r–s

Path 5: a–b–g–h–i–j– n–r–s

Path 6: a–b–g–h–i–k–l– n–r–s

Path 7: a–b–g–h–i–k–m– n–r–s

Conclusions from the above tutorial:

Conclusion – 1: Each of these paths consists of at least one new edge. Hence this basis set of paths
is NOT unique.

Conclusion – 2: Test cases should be designed for the independent path execution as identified
above.

Conclusion – 3: We must execute these paths at least once in order to test the program thoroughly.

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