Software Testing with Large Language Models: Survey, Landscape, and Vision

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Wang, Junjie, Huang, Yuchao, Chen, Chunyang, Liu, Zhe, Wang, Song, Wang, Qing
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
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author Wang, Junjie
Huang, Yuchao
Chen, Chunyang
Liu, Zhe
Wang, Song
Wang, Qing
author_facet Wang, Junjie
Huang, Yuchao
Chen, Chunyang
Liu, Zhe
Wang, Song
Wang, Qing
contents Pre-trained large language models (LLMs) have recently emerged as a breakthrough technology in natural language processing and artificial intelligence, with the ability to handle large-scale datasets and exhibit remarkable performance across a wide range of tasks. Meanwhile, software testing is a crucial undertaking that serves as a cornerstone for ensuring the quality and reliability of software products. As the scope and complexity of software systems continue to grow, the need for more effective software testing techniques becomes increasingly urgent, making it an area ripe for innovative approaches such as the use of LLMs. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the utilization of LLMs in software testing. It analyzes 102 relevant studies that have used LLMs for software testing, from both the software testing and LLMs perspectives. The paper presents a detailed discussion of the software testing tasks for which LLMs are commonly used, among which test case preparation and program repair are the most representative. It also analyzes the commonly used LLMs, the types of prompt engineering that are employed, as well as the accompanied techniques with these LLMs. It also summarizes the key challenges and potential opportunities in this direction. This work can serve as a roadmap for future research in this area, highlighting potential avenues for exploration, and identifying gaps in our current understanding of the use of LLMs in software testing.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2307_07221
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Software Testing with Large Language Models: Survey, Landscape, and Vision
Wang, Junjie
Huang, Yuchao
Chen, Chunyang
Liu, Zhe
Wang, Song
Wang, Qing
Software Engineering
Pre-trained large language models (LLMs) have recently emerged as a breakthrough technology in natural language processing and artificial intelligence, with the ability to handle large-scale datasets and exhibit remarkable performance across a wide range of tasks. Meanwhile, software testing is a crucial undertaking that serves as a cornerstone for ensuring the quality and reliability of software products. As the scope and complexity of software systems continue to grow, the need for more effective software testing techniques becomes increasingly urgent, making it an area ripe for innovative approaches such as the use of LLMs. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the utilization of LLMs in software testing. It analyzes 102 relevant studies that have used LLMs for software testing, from both the software testing and LLMs perspectives. The paper presents a detailed discussion of the software testing tasks for which LLMs are commonly used, among which test case preparation and program repair are the most representative. It also analyzes the commonly used LLMs, the types of prompt engineering that are employed, as well as the accompanied techniques with these LLMs. It also summarizes the key challenges and potential opportunities in this direction. This work can serve as a roadmap for future research in this area, highlighting potential avenues for exploration, and identifying gaps in our current understanding of the use of LLMs in software testing.
title Software Testing with Large Language Models: Survey, Landscape, and Vision
topic Software Engineering
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.07221