Generating Constrained Random Data with Uniform Distribution

Abstract

We present a technique for automatically deriving test data generators from a predicate expressed as a Boolean function. The distribution of these generators is uniform over values of a given size. To make the generation efficient we rely on laziness of the predicate, allowing us to prune the space of values quickly. In contrast, implementing test data generators by hand is labour intensive and error prone. Moreover, handwritten generators often have an unpredictable distribution of values, risking that some values are arbitrarily underrepresented. We also present a variation of the technique where the distribution is skewed in a limited and predictable way, potentially increasing the performance. Experimental evaluation of the techniques shows that the uniform derived generators are much easier to define than hand-written ones, and their performance, while lower, is adequate for some realistic applications.