{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,14]],"date-time":"2026-05-14T17:15:38Z","timestamp":1778778938893,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":133,"publisher":"Elsevier BV","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,1]],"date-time":"2026-08-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785542400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.elsevier.com\/tdm\/userlicense\/1.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,1]],"date-time":"2026-08-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785542400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.elsevier.com\/legal\/tdmrep-license"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,1]],"date-time":"2026-08-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785542400000},"content-version":"stm-asf","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.15223\/policy-017"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,1]],"date-time":"2026-08-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785542400000},"content-version":"stm-asf","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.15223\/policy-037"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,1]],"date-time":"2026-08-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785542400000},"content-version":"stm-asf","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.15223\/policy-012"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,1]],"date-time":"2026-08-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785542400000},"content-version":"stm-asf","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.15223\/policy-029"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,1]],"date-time":"2026-08-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785542400000},"content-version":"stm-asf","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.15223\/policy-004"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002855","name":"Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002855","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012166","name":"National Key Research and Development Program of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2024YFB3311600"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2024YFB3311600"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012166","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["elsevier.com","sciencedirect.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Information and Software Technology"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,8]]},"DOI":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,8]],"date-time":"2026-04-08T16:39:09Z","timestamp":1775666349000},"page":"108142","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/elsevier_cm_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"special_numbering":"C","title":["A survey of unit test case generation methods"],"prefix":"10.1016","volume":"196","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-9401-9000","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yao","family":"Chen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Ningwei","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Zhao","family":"Jin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Yizhe","family":"Luo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8070-5363","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yucheng","family":"Shi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1575-9891","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Shuo","family":"Feng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Mingliang","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"78","reference":[{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b1","series-title":"Software Testing and Quality Assurance: Theory and Practice","author":"Naik","year":"2011"},{"issue":"1","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5","DOI":"10.1007\/s10664-006-5964-9","article-title":"The economics of unit testing","volume":"11","author":"Ellims","year":"2006","journal-title":"Empir. Softw. Eng."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b3","series-title":"Proceedings of the 19th ACM SIGSOFT Symposium and the 13th European Conference on Foundations of Software Engineering","first-page":"416","article-title":"Evosuite: automatic test suite generation for object-oriented software","author":"Fraser","year":"2011"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b4","series-title":"Companion To the 22nd ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Object-Oriented Programming Systems and Applications Companion","first-page":"815","article-title":"Randoop: feedback-directed random testing for java","author":"Pacheco","year":"2007"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b5","series-title":"Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Large Language Models for Code","first-page":"54","article-title":"Unit test generation using generative AI: A comparative performance analysis of autogeneration tools","author":"Bhatia","year":"2024"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b6","series-title":"Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering","first-page":"313","article-title":"Using large language models to generate junit tests: An empirical study","author":"Siddiq","year":"2024"},{"issue":"2","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"258","DOI":"10.1109\/TSE.2011.121","article-title":"Random testing: Theoretical results and practical implications","volume":"38","author":"Arcuri","year":"2011","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng."},{"issue":"10","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2052","DOI":"10.1109\/TSE.2019.2942921","article-title":"A survey on adaptive random testing","volume":"47","author":"Huang","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng."},{"issue":"3","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1145\/3182657","article-title":"A survey of symbolic execution techniques","volume":"51","author":"Baldoni","year":"2018","journal-title":"ACM Comput. Surv."},{"issue":"7","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1758","DOI":"10.1016\/j.future.2012.02.006","article-title":"State of the art: Dynamic symbolic execution for automated test generation","volume":"29","author":"Chen","year":"2013","journal-title":"Future Gener. Comput. Syst."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b11","series-title":"Proceedings of the 27th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis","first-page":"242","article-title":"Translating code comments to procedure specifications","author":"Blasi","year":"2018"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b12","series-title":"Proceedings of the 25th International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis","first-page":"213","article-title":"Automatic generation of oracles for exceptional behaviors","author":"Goffi","year":"2016"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"236","DOI":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2018.08.009","article-title":"A large scale empirical comparison of state-of-the-art search-based test case generators","volume":"104","author":"Panichella","year":"2018","journal-title":"Inf. Softw. Technol."},{"issue":"2","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1145\/3624745","article-title":"Search-based software testing driven by automatically generated and manually defined fitness functions","volume":"33","author":"Formica","year":"2023","journal-title":"ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol."},{"issue":"4","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1145\/3638245","article-title":"Beyond accuracy: an empirical study on unit testing in open-source deep learning projects","volume":"33","author":"Wang","year":"2024","journal-title":"ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b16","series-title":"2021 IEEE\/ACM 43rd International Conference on Software Engineering","first-page":"336","article-title":"Studying the usage of text-to-text transfer transformer to support code-related tasks","author":"Mastropaolo","year":"2021"},{"issue":"9","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2254","DOI":"10.1109\/TSE.2024.3428972","article-title":"Llm-based test-driven interactive code generation: User study and empirical evaluation","volume":"50","author":"Fakhoury","year":"2024","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b18","series-title":"Exploring and evaluating hallucinations in llm-powered code generation","author":"Liu","year":"2024"},{"issue":"FSE","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2332","DOI":"10.1145\/3660810","article-title":"Clarifygpt: A framework for enhancing llm-based code generation via requirements clarification","volume":"1","author":"Mu","year":"2024","journal-title":"Proc. ACM Softw. Eng."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b20","series-title":"LLM is like a box of chocolates: the non-determinism of ChatGPT in code generation","author":"Ouyang","year":"2023"},{"issue":"3","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1743","DOI":"10.1109\/TAFFC.2022.3204972","article-title":"The biases of pre-trained language models: An empirical study on prompt-based sentiment analysis and emotion detection","volume":"14","author":"Mao","year":"2022","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Affect. Comput."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rser.2024.114570","article-title":"Sentiment analysis of the United States public support of nuclear power on social media using large language models","volume":"200","author":"Kwon","year":"2024","journal-title":"Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev."},{"issue":"3","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b23","first-page":"1","article-title":"Revisiting sentiment analysis for software engineering in the era of large language models","volume":"34","author":"Zhang","year":"2025","journal-title":"ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.knosys.2025.113569","article-title":"Fairness and social bias quantification in Large Language Models for sentiment analysis","volume":"319","author":"Radaideh","year":"2025","journal-title":"Knowl.-Based Syst."},{"issue":"8","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1978","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jss.2013.02.061","article-title":"An orchestrated survey of methodologies for automated software test case generation","volume":"86","author":"Anand","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Syst. Softw."},{"issue":"16","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b26","first-page":"33","article-title":"A review: study of test case generation techniques","volume":"107","author":"Hooda","year":"2014","journal-title":"Int. J. Comput. Appl."},{"issue":"35","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.17485\/ijst\/2015\/v8i35\/72881","article-title":"Generation of test case using automation in software systems\u2013a review","volume":"8","author":"Maheshwari","year":"2015","journal-title":"Indian J. Sci. Technol."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b28","series-title":"2023 18th Conference on Computer Science and Intelligence Systems","first-page":"627","article-title":"Current trends in automated test case generation","author":"Potuzak","year":"2023"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b29","series-title":"Automated unit test case generation: A systematic literature review","author":"Wang","year":"2025"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b30","series-title":"OSDI","first-page":"209","article-title":"KLEE: unassisted and automatic generation of high-coverage tests for complex systems programs","volume":"Vol. 8","author":"Cadar","year":"2008"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b31","series-title":"Proceedings of the 44th International Conference on Software Engineering","first-page":"2130","article-title":"Toga: A neural method for test oracle generation","author":"Dinella","year":"2022"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b32","series-title":"Introduction to Software Testing","author":"Ammann","year":"2017"},{"issue":"4","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"279","DOI":"10.1109\/TSE.1977.231145","article-title":"Testing programs with the aid of a compiler","volume":"SE-3","author":"Hamlet","year":"1977","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng."},{"issue":"3","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"163","DOI":"10.1016\/0950-5849(93)90053-6","article-title":"Mutation testing\u2014its origin and evolution","volume":"35","author":"Woodward","year":"1993","journal-title":"Inf. Softw. Technol."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b35","first-page":"275","article-title":"Mutation testing advances: an analysis and survey","volume":"vol. 112","author":"Papadakis","year":"2019"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b36","series-title":"CORE conference ranking 2023","author":"Computing Research and Education Association of Australasia (CORE)","year":"2023"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b37","series-title":"Scimago journal & country rank (SJR) \u2013 2023","author":"SCImago","year":"2023"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b38","series-title":"Recommended list of international academic conferences and journals in computer science (2022 edition)","author":"China Computer Federation","year":"2022"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b39","series-title":"CAS journal ranking (2024 upgrade edition)","author":"National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences","year":"2024"},{"issue":"1","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7","DOI":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2008.09.009","article-title":"Systematic literature reviews in software engineering\u2013a systematic literature review","volume":"51","author":"Kitchenham","year":"2009","journal-title":"Inf. Softw. Technol."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b41","series-title":"Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE\/ACM 46th International Conference on Software Engineering: Companion Proceedings","first-page":"406","article-title":"Extracting relevant test inputs from bug reports for automatic test case generation","author":"Ou\u00e9draogo","year":"2024"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jss.2022.111442","article-title":"Diversity-driven unit test generation","volume":"193","author":"Kessel","year":"2022","journal-title":"J. Syst. Softw."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jss.2020.110549","article-title":"Using likely invariants for test data generation","volume":"164","author":"Nosrati","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Syst. Softw."},{"issue":"3","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b44","first-page":"806","article-title":"Archive-based multi-criteria Artificial Bee Colony algorithm for whole test suite generation","volume":"24","author":"Sahin","year":"2021","journal-title":"Eng. Sci. Technol. Int. J."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"85518","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2022.3198694","article-title":"Automatic test case generation using many-objective search and principal component analysis","volume":"10","author":"Li","year":"2022","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2024.107564","article-title":"Enhancing logic-based testing with EvoDomain: A search-based domain-oriented test suite generation approach","volume":"177","author":"Kalaee","year":"2025","journal-title":"Inf. Softw. Technol."},{"issue":"11","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2332","DOI":"10.1109\/TSE.2019.2946773","article-title":"Testing with fewer resources: An adaptive approach to performance-aware test case generation","volume":"47","author":"Grano","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b48","series-title":"Proceedings of the 37th Ieee\/Acm International Conference on Automated Software Engineering","first-page":"1","article-title":"Selectively combining multiple coverage goals in search-based unit test generation","author":"Zhou","year":"2022"},{"issue":"4","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b49","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"854","DOI":"10.1109\/TSE.2024.3366613","article-title":"Coverage goal selector for combining multiple criteria in search-based unit test generation","volume":"50","author":"Zhou","year":"2024","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng."},{"issue":"2","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"38","DOI":"10.1007\/s10664-021-10048-8","article-title":"Learning how to search: generating effective test cases through adaptive fitness function selection","volume":"27","author":"Almulla","year":"2022","journal-title":"Empir. Softw. Eng."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b51","series-title":"2020 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution","first-page":"418","article-title":"A cost-effective approach for hyper-parameter tuning in search-based test case generation","author":"Zamani","year":"2020"},{"issue":"6","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b52","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"126","DOI":"10.1007\/s10664-021-10024-2","article-title":"A pragmatic approach for hyper-parameter tuning in search-based test case generation","volume":"26","author":"Zamani","year":"2021","journal-title":"Empir. Softw. Eng."},{"issue":"3","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b53","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1145\/3446199","article-title":"An adaptive search budget allocation approach for search-based test case generation","volume":"30","author":"Scalabrino","year":"2021","journal-title":"ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol. (TOSEM)"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b54","series-title":"2013 IEEE Sixth International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation","first-page":"362","article-title":"Evosuite: On the challenges of test case generation in the real world","author":"Fraser","year":"2013"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b55","series-title":"Proceedings of the ACM\/IEEE 44th International Conference on Software Engineering: Companion Proceedings","first-page":"168","article-title":"Pynguin: Automated unit test generation for python","author":"Lukasczyk","year":"2022"},{"issue":"2","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b56","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"36","DOI":"10.1007\/s10664-022-10248-w","article-title":"An empirical study of automated unit test generation for Python","volume":"28","author":"Lukasczyk","year":"2023","journal-title":"Empir. Softw. Eng."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b57","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2020.106446","article-title":"Test data generation using genetic programming","volume":"130","author":"Nosrati","year":"2021","journal-title":"Inf. Softw. Technol."},{"issue":"4","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b58","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"71","DOI":"10.1007\/s10664-024-10451-x","article-title":"Toward granular search-based automatic unit test case generation","volume":"29","author":"Pecorelli","year":"2024","journal-title":"Empir. Softw. Eng."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b59","series-title":"Proceedings of the 39th IEEE\/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering","first-page":"1044","article-title":"Effective unit test generation for java null pointer exceptions","author":"Lee","year":"2024"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b60","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ins.2023.119915","article-title":"ESSENT: an arithmetic optimization algorithm with enhanced scatter search strategy for automated test case generation","volume":"656","author":"Li","year":"2024","journal-title":"Inform. Sci."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b61","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.asoc.2024.111586","article-title":"Automated test case generation for path coverage using hierarchical surrogate-assisted differential evolution","volume":"158","author":"Gao","year":"2024","journal-title":"Appl. Soft Comput."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b62","series-title":"2023 International Conference on the Cognitive Computing and Complex Data","first-page":"207","article-title":"Test data generation based on multiprocess enhanced multi-population genetic algorithm","author":"Dang","year":"2023"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b63","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.eswa.2024.123932","article-title":"Multi-task collaborative method based on manifold optimization for automated test case generation based on path coverage","volume":"251","author":"Cao","year":"2024","journal-title":"Expert Syst. Appl."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b64","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.asoc.2024.111407","article-title":"Multi-task modeling and multifactorial optimization for path coverage problem of automated test case generation","volume":"154","author":"Wang","year":"2024","journal-title":"Appl. Soft Comput."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b65","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.engappai.2021.104454","article-title":"Automated test case generation for path coverage by using grey prediction evolution algorithm with improved scatter search strategy","volume":"106","author":"Cai","year":"2021","journal-title":"Eng. Appl. Artif. Intell."},{"issue":"7","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b66","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jksuci.2023.101600","article-title":"Backtracking search optimization algorithm with dual scatter search strategy for automated test case generation","volume":"35","author":"Ren","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. King Saud Univ.-Comput. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b67","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.engappai.2022.104840","article-title":"Test case generation using improved differential evolution algorithms with novel hypercube-based learning strategies","volume":"112","author":"Su","year":"2022","journal-title":"Eng. Appl. Artif. Intell."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b68","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"110879","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2022.3214841","article-title":"Object-oriented test case generation using teaching learning-based optimization (TLBO) algorithm","volume":"10","author":"Al-Masri","year":"2022","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b69","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.eswa.2021.115446","article-title":"Automation of software test data generation using genetic algorithm and reinforcement learning","volume":"183","author":"Esnaashari","year":"2021","journal-title":"Expert Syst. Appl."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b70","series-title":"Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE\/ACM 46th International Conference on Software Engineering: Companion Proceedings","first-page":"284","article-title":"Micro-scale concolic testing framework for automated test data generation based on path coverage","author":"Liu","year":"2024"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b71","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"86759","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2021.3089196","article-title":"An evolutionary generation method of test data for multiple paths based on coverage balance","volume":"9","author":"Fan","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b72","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jss.2024.112121","article-title":"Set evolution based test data generation for killing stubborn mutants","volume":"216","author":"Wei","year":"2024","journal-title":"J. Syst. Softw."},{"issue":"4","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b73","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"479","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jksuci.2019.09.010","article-title":"PSO based test case generation for critical path using improved combined fitness function","volume":"32","author":"Sahoo","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. King Saud Univ.-Comput. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b74","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.asoc.2021.107910","article-title":"Binary searching iterative algorithm for generating test cases to cover paths","volume":"113","author":"Cai","year":"2021","journal-title":"Appl. Soft Comput."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b75","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cie.2021.107290","article-title":"Automated test case generation based on differential evolution with node branch archive","volume":"156","author":"Dai","year":"2021","journal-title":"Comput. Ind. Eng."},{"issue":"11","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b76","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5005","DOI":"10.1109\/TII.2018.2856881","article-title":"Automated test case generation based on differential evolution with relationship matrix for iFogSim toolkit","volume":"14","author":"Huang","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Ind. Inform."},{"issue":"2","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b77","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1075","DOI":"10.1109\/TETC.2021.3070968","article-title":"Manifold-inspired search-based algorithm for automated test case generation","volume":"10","author":"Liu","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Emerg. Top. Comput."},{"issue":"2","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b78","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"143","DOI":"10.1007\/s40747-024-01706-7","article-title":"Microscale search-based algorithm based on time-space transfer for automated test case generation","volume":"11","author":"Hong","year":"2025","journal-title":"Complex Intell. Syst."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b79","series-title":"International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems","first-page":"337","article-title":"Z3: An efficient SMT solver","author":"De Moura","year":"2008"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b80","series-title":"International Conference on Computer Aided Verification","first-page":"171","article-title":"cvc4","author":"Barrett","year":"2011"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b81","series-title":"2023 IEEE\/ACM 45th International Conference on Software Engineering: Companion Proceedings (ICSE-Companion)","first-page":"380","article-title":"UnitTestBot: Automated unit test generation for C code in integrated development environments","author":"Ivanov","year":"2023"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b82","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2022.107091","article-title":"COSMOS: A comprehensive framework for automatically generating domain-oriented test suite","volume":"154","author":"Kalaee","year":"2023","journal-title":"Inf. Softw. Technol."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b83","series-title":"International Conference on Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation","first-page":"180","article-title":"Harnessing static analysis to help learn pseudo-inverses of string manipulating procedures for automatic test generation","author":"Ish-Shalom","year":"2020"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b84","series-title":"2022 IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering Workshops","first-page":"258","article-title":"Automated test case generation from input specification in natural language","author":"Li","year":"2022"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b85","series-title":"2023 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution","first-page":"519","article-title":"Specification-based test case generation for C++ engineering software","author":"Hamberger","year":"2023"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b86","series-title":"Proceedings of the 37th IEEE\/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering","first-page":"1","article-title":"Call me maybe: Using nlp to automatically generate unit test cases respecting temporal constraints","author":"Blasi","year":"2022"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b87","series-title":"2022 IEEE 33rd International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering","first-page":"251","article-title":"String test data generation for java programs","author":"Wang","year":"2022"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b88","series-title":"Codebert: A pre-trained model for programming and natural languages","author":"Feng","year":"2020"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b89","series-title":"Unified pre-training for program understanding and generation","author":"Ahmad","year":"2021"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b90","series-title":"Codet5: Identifier-aware unified pre-trained encoder-decoder models for code understanding and generation","author":"Wang","year":"2021"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b91","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2024.107565","article-title":"A3test: Assertion-augmented automated test case generation","volume":"176","author":"Alagarsamy","year":"2024","journal-title":"Inf. Softw. Technol."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b92","series-title":"Proceedings of the 33rd ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis","first-page":"1211","article-title":"Domain adaptation for code model-based unit test case generation","author":"Shin","year":"2024"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b93","series-title":"Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories","first-page":"299","article-title":"Methods2Test: A dataset of focal methods mapped to test cases","author":"Tufano","year":"2022"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b94","series-title":"Proceedings of the 32nd ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis","first-page":"589","article-title":"Towards more realistic evaluation for neural test oracle generation","author":"Liu","year":"2023"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b95","series-title":"Proceedings of the 31st ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering","first-page":"120","article-title":"Neural-based test oracle generation: A large-scale evaluation and lessons learned","author":"Hossain","year":"2023"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b96","series-title":"Proceedings of the 40th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics","first-page":"311","article-title":"Bleu: a method for automatic evaluation of machine translation","author":"Papineni","year":"2002"},{"issue":"1","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b97","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"10","DOI":"10.1034\/j.1399-3054.2003.00086.x","article-title":"Methods for isolating and characterizing ACC deaminase-containing plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria","volume":"118","author":"Penrose","year":"2003","journal-title":"Physiol. Plant."},{"issue":"9","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b98","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2337","DOI":"10.1109\/TSE.2024.3433463","article-title":"Assessing evaluation metrics for neural test oracle generation","volume":"50","author":"Shin","year":"2024","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b99","series-title":"Unit test case generation with transformers and focal context","author":"Tufano","year":"2020"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b100","series-title":"Companion Proceedings of the 32nd ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering","first-page":"572","article-title":"Chatunitest: A framework for llm-based test generation","author":"Chen","year":"2024"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b101","series-title":"Gpt-4 technical report","author":"Achiam","year":"2023"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b102","series-title":"2025 IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering","first-page":"757","article-title":"Tracets4J: A traceable unit test generation dataset","author":"Jin","year":"2025"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b103","first-page":"1877","article-title":"Language models are few-shot learners","volume":"33","author":"Brown","year":"2020","journal-title":"Adv. Neural Inf. Process. Syst."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b104","series-title":"Codexglue: A machine learning benchmark dataset for code understanding and generation","author":"Lu","year":"2021"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b105","series-title":"Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE\/ACM 46th International Conference on Software Engineering: Companion Proceedings","first-page":"360","article-title":"Automatic generation of test cases based on bug reports: a feasibility study with large language models","author":"Plein","year":"2024"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b106","unstructured":"OpenAI, GPT-3.5. URL https:\/\/platform.openai.com\/docs\/models."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b107","series-title":"Proceedings of the 39th IEEE\/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering","first-page":"1258","article-title":"Hits: High-coverage llm-based unit test generation via method slicing","author":"Wang","year":"2024"},{"issue":"FSE","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b108","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1703","DOI":"10.1145\/3660783","article-title":"Evaluating and improving chatgpt for unit test generation","volume":"1","author":"Yuan","year":"2024","journal-title":"Proc. ACM Softw. Eng."},{"issue":"1","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b109","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"85","DOI":"10.1109\/TSE.2023.3334955","article-title":"An empirical evaluation of using large language models for automated unit test generation","volume":"50","author":"Sch\u00e4fer","year":"2023","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng."},{"issue":"3","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b110","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"85","DOI":"10.1007\/s10664-025-10635-z","article-title":"Enriching automatic test case generation by extracting relevant test inputs from bug reports","volume":"30","author":"Ou\u00e9draogo","year":"2025","journal-title":"Empir. Softw. Eng."},{"issue":"6","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b111","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1340","DOI":"10.1109\/TSE.2024.3382365","article-title":"Chatgpt vs sbst: A comparative assessment of unit test suite generation","volume":"50","author":"Tang","year":"2024","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng."},{"issue":"1","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b112","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1109\/TSE.2024.3519159","article-title":"C hat a ssert: LLM-based test oracle generation with external tools assistance","volume":"51","author":"Hayet","year":"2024","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b113","series-title":"Mistral 7B","author":"Jiang","year":"2023"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b114","series-title":"Mixtral of experts","author":"Jiang","year":"2024"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b115","series-title":"Proceedings of the 39th IEEE\/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering","first-page":"2464","article-title":"Llms and prompting for unit test generation: A large-scale evaluation","author":"Ouedraogo","year":"2024"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b116","series-title":"Starcoder 2 and the stack v2: The next generation","author":"Lozhkov","year":"2024"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b117","series-title":"Code llama: Open foundation models for code","author":"Roziere","year":"2023"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b118","series-title":"Qwen technical report","author":"Bai","year":"2023"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b119","series-title":"Proceedings of the 39th IEEE\/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering","first-page":"1408","article-title":"Towards understanding the effectiveness of large language models on directed test input generation","author":"Jiang","year":"2024"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b120","series-title":"The llama 3 herd of models","author":"Meta AI","year":"2024"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b121","series-title":"WizardLM-2-8x22B","author":"WizardLM@Microsoft AI","year":"2024"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b122","series-title":"DeepSeek-coder: When the large language model meets programming\u2013the rise of code intelligence","author":"Guo","year":"2024"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b123","series-title":"WizardCoder: Empowering code large language models with evol-instruct","author":"Luo","year":"2023"},{"issue":"1","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b124","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"32","DOI":"10.1186\/s42400-024-00335-4","article-title":"LLM4TDG: test-driven generation of large language models based on enhanced constraint reasoning","volume":"8","author":"Liu","year":"2025","journal-title":"Cybersecurity"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b125","series-title":"Phind-CodeLlama-34B-v2 model repository","author":"Phind","year":"2023"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b126","series-title":"Proceedings of the 39th IEEE\/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering","first-page":"1607","article-title":"On the evaluation of large language models in unit test generation","author":"Yang","year":"2024"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b127","series-title":"Codegen2: Lessons for training llms on programming and natural languages","author":"Nijkamp","year":"2023"},{"issue":"FSE","key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b128","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"951","DOI":"10.1145\/3643769","article-title":"Code-aware prompting: A study of coverage-guided test generation in regression setting using llm","volume":"1","author":"Ryan","year":"2024","journal-title":"Proc. ACM Softw. Eng."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b129","series-title":"Evaluating large language models trained on code","author":"Chen","year":"2021"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b130","series-title":"2023 IEEE\/ACM 45th International Conference on Software Engineering","first-page":"919","article-title":"Codamosa: Escaping coverage plateaus in test generation with pre-trained large language models","author":"Lemieux","year":"2023"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b131","series-title":"Llama 2: Open foundation and fine-tuned chat models","author":"Touvron","year":"2023"},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b132","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2024.107468","article-title":"Effective test generation using pre-trained large language models and mutation testing","volume":"171","author":"Dakhel","year":"2024","journal-title":"Inf. Softw. Technol."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142_b133","series-title":"2025 IEEE\/ACM 47th International Conference on Software Engineering","first-page":"779","article-title":"Test intention guided llm-based unit test generation","author":"Nan","year":"2025"}],"container-title":["Information and Software Technology"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/api.elsevier.com\/content\/article\/PII:S095058492600131X?httpAccept=text\/xml","content-type":"text\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/api.elsevier.com\/content\/article\/PII:S095058492600131X?httpAccept=text\/plain","content-type":"text\/plain","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,14]],"date-time":"2026-05-14T16:41:02Z","timestamp":1778776862000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/linkinghub.elsevier.com\/retrieve\/pii\/S095058492600131X"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,8]]},"references-count":133,"alternative-id":["S095058492600131X"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142","relation":{},"ISSN":["0950-5849"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0950-5849","type":"print"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,8]]},"assertion":[{"value":"Elsevier","name":"publisher","label":"This article is maintained by"},{"value":"A survey of unit test case generation methods","name":"articletitle","label":"Article Title"},{"value":"Information and Software Technology","name":"journaltitle","label":"Journal Title"},{"value":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.infsof.2026.108142","name":"articlelink","label":"CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version"},{"value":"article","name":"content_type","label":"Content Type"},{"value":"\u00a9 2026 Elsevier B.V. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.","name":"copyright","label":"Copyright"}],"article-number":"108142"}}