mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

A Tool for Generating Exceptional Behavior Tests With Large Language Models

arXiv 2505.22818 ↗First posted 28 May 2025cs.SE cs.AIcited by 2

Not on the map. Why?

Abstract (arXiv)

Exceptional behavior tests (EBTs) are crucial in software development for verifying that code correctly handles unwanted events and throws appropriate exceptions. However, prior research has shown that developers often prioritize testing "happy paths", e.g., paths without unwanted events over exceptional scenarios. We present exLong, a framework that automatically generates EBTs to address this gap. exLong leverages a large language model (LLM) fine-tuned from CodeLlama and incorporates reasoning about exception-throwing traces, conditional expressions that guard throw statements, and non-exceptional behavior tests that execute similar traces. Our demonstration video illustrates how exLong can effectively assist developers in creating comprehensive EBTs for their project (available at https://youtu.be/Jro8kMgplZk).

Key facts. Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 15 of its 40 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 28 May 2025.

Builds on

15 of 40 references.

References · 15

  1. 2021Finetuned Language Models Are Zero-Shot Learnerscited by 3,780
  2. 2022Self-Instruct: Aligning Language Models with Self-Generated Instructionscited by 2,724
  3. 2023Code Llama: Open Foundation Models for Codecited by 2,139
  4. 2021Multitask Prompted Training Enables Zero-Shot Task Generalizationcited by 1,470
  5. 2022LLM.int8(): 8-bit Matrix Multiplication for Transformers at Scalecited by 906
  6. 2019CodeSearchNet Challenge: Evaluating the State of Semantic Code Searchcited by 654
  7. 2022ZeroQuant: Efficient and Affordable Post-Training Quantization for Large-Scale Transformerscited by 526
  8. 2023An Empirical Evaluation of Using Large Language Models for Automated Unit Test Generationcited by 194
  9. 2023Software Testing with Large Language Models: Survey, Landscape, and Visioncited by 166
  10. 2020Unit Test Case Generation with Transformers and Focal Contextcited by 118
  11. 2023No More Manual Tests? Evaluating and Improving ChatGPT for Unit Test Generationcited by 82
  12. 2024Code-Aware Prompting: A study of Coverage Guided Test Generation in Regression Setting using LLMcited by 64
3 more
  1. 2023Learning Deep Semantics for Test Completioncited by 31
  2. 2021Using Relative Lines of Code to Guide Automated Test Generation for Pythoncited by 3
  3. 2021Assessing Exception Handling Testing Practices in Open-Source Librariescited by 2

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 1; 2026: 1.

2 papers.

  1. 2025ContractEval: A Benchmark for Evaluating Contract-Satisfying Assertions in Code Generationcited by 2
  2. 2026STAB: Specification-driven Testing for Algorithmic Bottleneckscited by 0