• Home
• Schedule
• Homework
• Resources
• Software
• Style guide

In class exercise: QuickCheck properties for lists

> {-# LANGUAGE FlexibleContexts #-}
> {-# LANGUAGE FlexibleInstances #-} 
> {-# LANGUAGE ScopedTypeVariables #-}

> module QuickList where

> import Test.QuickCheck
> import Data.List as List

Testing List Functions

In this problem, you'll be writing QuickCheck properties to specify various list manipulation functions. For each property that you write, you should also include a buggy implementation of the tested function that does not satisfy the property you wrote. We'll be asking you to write your properties in a very particular way. For instance, suppose you are testing the const function, which takes two arguments and returns the first one. Here's how you'd normally test (a type-restricted version of) it. First, we write an appropriate property:

> prop_const' :: Eq a => a -> a -> Bool
> prop_const' a b = const a b == a

Then we see what QuickCheck thinks of the property by entering this in GHCi:

   *QuickList> quickCheck (prop_const' :: Char -> Char -> Bool)

(The type annotation is needed because prop_const is polymorphic; QuickCheck wouldn't know what type of test data to generate if we left it off. Also, recall that you must run this in ghci instead of in directly in your IDE because quickCheck requires the IO monad.)

Below, we'll be asking you to fill in most of the definition and the type signature, given code snippets such as

prop_const :: (a -> a -> a) -> Undefined
prop_const const' = undefined

where the property is parameterized by a version of the function to test (i.e. const') and where Undefined is a dummy Testable type that will emit an error if used:

> data Undefined
> instance Testable Undefined where
>   property = error "Unimplemented property"

Filling in the property will then involve

• Adding parameters,
• Replacing the body, and
• Replacing the Undefined type with the desired type of the property. This might involve adding new constraints to the type variables or new arguments to the function type.

That will look, for instance, like so:

> prop_const :: Eq a => (a -> a -> a) -> a -> a -> Bool
> prop_const const' a b = const' a b == a

You'll fill in the types of all the parameters plus the return type, and you can add any type class constraints you want.

By parameterizing these properties with the functions to test, and writing tests that use the passed in parameter (here const') instead of the real function (here const), we are able to test buggy implementations in addition to the correct ones. For instance, suppose that you have:

> constBug :: a -> a -> a
> constBug _ b = b -- Oops: this returns the *second* argument, not the first.

Then you'll be able to test your property on both const (where it will pass) and constBug (where it will not):

*QuickList> quickCheck (prop_const const :: Char -> Char -> Bool)
+++ OK, passed 100 tests.
*QuickList> quickCheck (prop_const constBug :: Char -> Char -> Bool)
*** Failed! Falsifiable (after 1 test and 2 shrinks):
'a'
'b'

Random Generation and Shrinking

Note above that when QuickCheck detects a property violation, it produces a counterexample. In this case, the counterExample is the two arguments 'a' and 'b',

*QuickList> prop_const constBug 'a' 'b'
False
*QuickList> constBug 'a' 'b'
'b'

Although QuickCheck is based on testing with random arguments, it is not a coincidence that this is the counterexample that QuickCheck finds. QuickCheck tries to report small counterexamples to programmers, to make it easy to figure out the bug. What it means for a counterexample to be small dependends on its type.

Recall that the key to QuickCheck is the Arbitrary type class. This class has two members, one for generating elements to use with tests and another for "shrinking" them once a counterexample has been found.

 class Arbitrary a where
    -- generator for an arbitrary value of type a
    arbitrary :: Gen a

    -- produce a list of values that are "smaller" than the input
    shrink :: a -> [a]
    shrink _ = []

Let's see how this works with built-in types. The sample function can be used with arbitrary to produce and print out 10 random elements of a type.

  *QuickList> sample (arbitrary :: Gen Char)
  'c'
  'x'
  'V'
  '\DC2'
  '\34532'
  'M'
  '\DLE'
  '['
  '6'
  '-'
  '\DLE'

Running sample again in ghci will produce a different result. (And if you tried to do this yourself, you probably saw different characters in your terminal.)

When QuickCheck tests prop_const it will generate two chars using arbitrary. If they are different from eachother, then they will be a counterexample. However, QuickCheck doesn't stop there, it then runs the shrink operation on these two chars to get a list of potential alternates to try instead.

  *QuickList> shrink 'c'
  "ab"
  *QuickList> shrink 'x'
  "abc"

For Char these alternates are all at the beginning of the alphabet so it is likely that we'll see counterexamples mentioning 'a' and 'b' instead of 'x' and '\34532'. (Note also that the list for 'c' doesn't include 'c' itself! QuickCheck will shrink multiple times if necessary, trying to find the smallest counterexample and we don't want it to get into an infinite loop.)

Now play around with arbitrary and shrink on built-in types so that you get a sense of what is happening behind the scenes with QuickCheck.

Finally, if you look close at the definition of the Arbitrary class, you'll see that there is a default definition for shrink --- just return the empty list. This definition disables shrinking for a particular type. (The empty list means that there are no smaller elements, so nothing more to try.) We recommend that you always implement shrink as it is a useful way to

-- Part a

Define a property showing that minimum really returns the smallest element in a list; also, write a buggy implementation of minimum that doesn't satisfy your property. (Don't forget to fill in the type signature for prop_minimum!)

> prop_minimum :: Ord a => ([a] -> a) -> Undefined
> prop_minimum minimum' = undefined

Also define a buggy implementation that can be identified by your property.

> minimumBug :: Ord a => [a] -> a
> minimumBug = undefined

Be careful when testing your code with ghci.

 *QuickList> quickCheck (prop_minimum (minimumBug :: [Char] -> Char))

In particular, if you leave off the type annotation, you could get some strange results. For example, it is possible for this check to succeed even though the property is correct and the buggy version is indeed buggy.

  *QuickList> quickCheck (prop_minimum minimumBug)

The issue is that if prop_minimum minimumBug has a polymorphic type, then ghci will default any remaining type variables to () (i.e. the unit type). This is a problem because any element of a list of unit values is the minimum element.

If you enable the warning about defaulting in ghci, it will alert you when this happens

  *QuickList>  :set -Wtype-defaults
  *QuickList> quickCheck (prop_minimum minimumBug)
  <interactive>:90:1-37: warning: [-Wtype-defaults]
    • Defaulting the following constraints to type ‘()’
       (Arbitrary a0)
         arising from a use of ‘quickCheck’ at <interactive>:90:1-37
       (Show a0)
         arising from a use of ‘quickCheck’ at <interactive>:90:1-37
       (Ord a0)
         from a use of ‘prop_minimum’ at <interactive>:90:14-37

-- Part b

Define a property specifying the replicate function from the standard library, and a buggy implementation that violates this spec. Recall that replicate k x is a list containing k copies of x.

One QuickCheck feature that will be important here (and later) is the use of newtypes, such as NonNegative, to restrict the domain of arbitrarily generated values:

*QuickList> sample (arbitrary :: Gen Int)
1
-2
4
-7
-9
-20
-1
22
60
-1780
3770
*QuickList> sample (arbitrary :: Gen NonNegative Int)
NonNegative {getNonNegative = 1}
NonNegative {getNonNegative = 0}
NonNegative {getNonNegative = 1}
NonNegative {getNonNegative = 8}
NonNegative {getNonNegative = 32}
NonNegative {getNonNegative = 5}
NonNegative {getNonNegative = 28}
NonNegative {getNonNegative = 23}
NonNegative {getNonNegative = 662}
NonNegative {getNonNegative = 584}
NonNegative {getNonNegative = 0}

However, simply using NonNegative Int won't work here, as generating, say, a million-element list will take far too long (try it!).

So, your job is to define a newtype for generating small non-negative integers (say, in the range 0 to 1000):

> newtype SmallNonNegInt = SmallNonNegInt Int deriving (Eq, Ord, Show, Read)

When you make a quickcheck instance, you should define both arbitrary and shrink for the SmallNonNegInt type. Note: the shrink function in this instance can be derived from shrinking the int inside. Try it out first:

 *QuickList> shrink (10 :: Int)
 [0,5,8,9]

Then implement your definition so that you get the following behavior:

 *QuickList> shrink (SmallNonNegInt 10)
 [SmallNonNegInt 0,SmallNonNegInt 5,SmallNonNegInt 8,SmallNonNegInt 9]

> instance Arbitrary SmallNonNegInt where
>     arbitrary = undefined
>     shrink = undefined

Now, use this type to define your property specifying replicate.

> prop_replicate :: (Int -> a -> [a]) -> Undefined
> prop_replicate replicate' = undefined

> replicateBug :: Int -> a -> [a]
> replicateBug = undefined

-- Part c

Define two properties specifying group; the first one should say that "the concatenation of the result is equal to the argument", and the second should say that "each sublist in the result is non-empty and contains only equal elements". Also write a buggy version of group that violates both of them.

> prop_group_1 :: Eq a => ([a] -> [[a]]) -> Undefined
> prop_group_1 group' = undefined

> prop_group_2 :: Eq a => ([a] -> [[a]]) -> Undefined
> prop_group_2 group' = undefined

> groupBug :: Eq a => [a] -> [[a]]
> groupBug = undefined

-- Part d

Write two interesting properties about reverse. Write two different buggy versions, one which violates each property.

> prop_reverse_1 :: ([a] -> [a]) -> Undefined
> prop_reverse_1 reverse' = undefined

> prop_reverse_2 :: ([a] -> [a]) -> Undefined
> prop_reverse_2 reverse' = undefined
> 
> reverseBug_1 :: [a] -> [a]
> reverseBug_1 = undefined

> reverseBug_2 :: [a] -> [a]
> reverseBug_2 = undefined

Once you've written all of these, evaluating main in GHCi should produce the expected output:

> main :: IO ()
> main = do
>   let qcName name prop = do
>         putStr $ name ++ ": "
>         quickCheck prop

>   putStrLn "The following tests should all succeed:"
>   qcName "const"     $ prop_const     (const     :: Char -> Char -> Char)
>   qcName "minimum"   $ prop_minimum   (minimum   :: String -> Char)
>   qcName "replicate" $ prop_replicate (replicate :: Int -> Char -> String)
>   qcName "group_1"   $ prop_group_1   (group     :: String -> [String])
>   qcName "group_2"   $ prop_group_2   (group     :: String -> [String])
>   qcName "reverse_1" $ prop_reverse_1 (reverse   :: String -> String)
>   qcName "reverse_2" $ prop_reverse_2 (reverse   :: String -> String)

>   putStrLn ""

>   putStrLn "The following tests should all fail:"
>   qcName "const"     $ prop_const     (constBug     :: Char -> Char -> Char)
>   qcName "minimum"   $ prop_minimum   (minimumBug   :: String -> Char)
>   qcName "replicate" $ prop_replicate (replicateBug :: Int -> Char -> String)
>   qcName "group_1"   $ prop_group_1   (groupBug     :: String -> [String])
>   qcName "group_2"   $ prop_group_2   (groupBug     :: String -> [String])
>   qcName "reverse_1" $ prop_reverse_1 (reverseBug_1 :: String -> String)
>   qcName "reverse_2" $ prop_reverse_2 (reverseBug_2 :: String -> String)