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Module Base_quickcheck.GeneratorSource

Generators are sources of random values. Every randomized test needs a generator to produce its inputs.

Sourcetype +'a t

Basic Generators

These are good default generators for tests over types from OCaml and Base. They are designed to hit corner cases reasonably often, and also generate reasonably good coverage of common cases and arbitrary values.

This helper module type exists separately just to open Bigarray in its scope.

Sourceval fn : 'a Base_quickcheck__.Observer0.t -> 'b Base_quickcheck.Generator.t -> ('a -> 'b) Base_quickcheck.Generator.t

Generates random functions that use the given observer to perturb the pseudo-random state that is then used to generate the output value. The resulting functions are therefore deterministic, assuming the observer is deterministic.

Sourceval map_tree_using_comparator : comparator:('key, 'cmp) Base.Comparator.t -> 'key Base_quickcheck.Generator.t -> 'data Base_quickcheck.Generator.t -> ('key, 'data, 'cmp) Base.Map.Using_comparator.Tree.t Base_quickcheck.Generator.t
Sourceval set_tree_using_comparator : comparator:('elt, 'cmp) Base.Comparator.t -> 'elt Base_quickcheck.Generator.t -> ('elt, 'cmp) Base.Set.Using_comparator.Tree.t Base_quickcheck.Generator.t

Combining and Modifying Generators

Produces any of the given values, weighted uniformly.

Chooses among the given generators, weighted uniformly; then chooses a value from that generator.

include Base.Monad.S with type 'a t := 'a Base_quickcheck.Generator.t

t >>= f returns a computation that sequences the computations represented by two monad elements. The resulting computation first does t to yield a value v, and then runs the computation returned by f v.

t >>| f is t >>= (fun a -> return (f a)).

Sourcemodule Monad_infix : sig ... end
Sourceval return : 'a -> 'a Base_quickcheck.Generator.t

return v returns the (trivial) computation that returns v.

map t ~f is t >>| f.

ignore_m t is map t ~f:(fun _ -> ()). ignore_m used to be called ignore, but we decided that was a bad name, because it shadowed the widely used Stdlib.ignore. Some monads still do let ignore = ignore_m for historical reasons.

Like all, but ensures that every monadic value in the list produces a unit value, all of which are discarded rather than being collected into a list.

Sourcemodule Let_syntax : sig ... end

These are convenient to have in scope when programming with a monad:

Size of Random Values

Base_quickcheck threads a size parameter through generators to limit the size of unbounded types. Users of Base_quickcheck often do not need to think about the size parameter; the default generators handle it sensibly. Generators of atomic types ignore it, generators of bounded-size containers like both and either thread it through unchanged, and generators of unbounded-size containers like list and set_t_m distribute the size they are given among their constituents.

The bindings below allow direct manipulation of the size parameter in cases where users want a custom treatment of sizes. There is no prescribed meaning of the size parameter for any given type other than that it must be non-negative. As a general guideline, however, the time and space used to generate a value should be proportional to the size parameter at most.

The size parameter should be treated as an upper bound but not as a lower bound, so for example a generator given a size parameter of 2 should have a chance to generate values of size 0 or 1 as well. If the size parameter is treated as a lower bound, then for example members of tuples will always be generated at the same size, and test cases for members of different size will not be covered.

Returns the current size parameter.

Produces a generator that ignores the size parameter passed in by Base_quickcheck and instead uses the given ~size argument. Most often used with size to reduce the size when dispatching to generators for subparts of a value.

For example, here is a use of with_size and size to create a generator for optional lists. We are careful to generate None even at non-zero sizes; see the note above about not using size as a lower bound.

  let optional_list generator =
    let open Let_syntax in
    match%bind both size bool with
    | (0, _) | (_, false) -> return None
    | k, _ ->
      let%map elements = with_size ~size:(k-1) (list generator) in
      Some elements
Sourceval sizes : ?min_length:Base.int -> ?max_length:Base.int -> Base.unit -> Base.int Base.list Base_quickcheck.Generator.t

Produces a list of sizes that distribute the current size among list elements. The min_length and max_length parameters can be used to bound the length of the result.

This is the distribution used by generators such as list to divide up size among elements.

This function is designed so that elements of list are always generated at strictly smaller size than the list itself. The technical invariant is: if size_list is generated by with_size ~size:n (sizes ~min_length ()), then:

  (List.length size_list - min_length) + (List.sum (module Int) size_list)
  <= n

Filtering Generators

Produces values for which f returns true. If f returns false, retries with size incremented by 1. This avoids filter getting stuck if all values at a given size fail f; see the note above about not using size as a lower bound.

When f produces Some x, produces x. If f returns None, retries with size incremented by 1, as with filter.

Generating Recursive Values

Ties the recursive knot to produce generators for recursive types that have multiple clauses, separating base cases from recursive cases. At size 0, only base cases are produced; at size n > 0, the base cases are produced at size n along with the recursive cases at size n-1. Raises if the list of base cases is empty or if the list of recursive cases is empty.

For example, here is a use of recursive_union to create a generator for an expression datatype.

  type exp =
    | Int  of int
    | Bool of bool
    | If   of exp * exp * exp
    | Add  of exp * exp

  let exp_generator =
    recursive_union
      [
        map int ~f:(fun i -> Int i);
        map bool ~f:(fun b -> Bool b);
      ]
      ~f:(fun exp ->
        let open Let_syntax in
        [
          (let%map a = exp and b = exp and c = exp in If (a, b, c));
          (let%map a = exp and b = exp in Add (a, b));
        ])

Like recursive_union, without separate clauses or automatic size management. Useful for generating recursive types that don't fit the clause structure of recursive_union.

For example, here is a use of fixed_point to create a generator for N-ary trees. No manual size management is needed, as Generator.list guarantees to generate list elements at strictly smaller sizes than the list itself.

  type tree = Node of tree list
  let tree_generator =
    fixed_point (fun tree ->
      map (list tree) ~f:(fun trees -> Node trees))

Creates a t that forces the lazy argument as necessary. Can be used to tie (mutually) recursive knots.

Custom Random Distributions

Sourceval of_weighted_list : (Base.float * 'a) Base.list -> 'a Base_quickcheck.Generator.t

Produces one of the given values, chosen with the corresponding weight. Weights must be non-negative and must have a strictly positive sum.

Produces one of the given generators, chosen with the corresponding weight, then chooses a value from that generator. Weights must be non-negative and must have a strictly positive sum.

Like recursive_union, with explicit weights for each clause. Weights must be non-negative and the recursive case weights must have a strictly positive sum.

Integer Distributions

Sourceval small_positive_or_zero_int : Base.int Base_quickcheck.Generator.t

Produces an integer between 0 and an unspecified upper bound which is proportional to size. This is a good generator to use for sizes of values like strings which have a variable number of fixed-size elements.

Sourceval small_strictly_positive_int : Base.int Base_quickcheck.Generator.t

Like small_positive_or_zero_int but with a minimum of 1.

Uniform Unbounded Distributions

These generators produce any value of the relevant integer type with uniform weight. The default generators for these types differ in that they give higher weight to corner cases, e.g. min_value and max_value.

Bounded Distributions

These generators produce any value between the given inclusive bounds, which must be given in nondecreasing order. Higher weight is given to corner cases, e.g. the bounds themselves.

Uniform Bounded Distributions

These generators produce any value between the given inclusive bounds, which must be given in nondecreasing order. All values are given equal weight.

Uniform in Log Space Distributions

These generators produce any value between the given inclusive, non-negative bounds, choosing bit-length in that range uniformly and then uniformly among values with that bit-length between the bounds. The bounds must be given in nondecreasing order.

Sourceval int_log_uniform_inclusive : Base.int -> Base.int -> Base.int Base_quickcheck.Generator.t
Sourceval int32_log_uniform_inclusive : Base.int32 -> Base.int32 -> Base.int32 Base_quickcheck.Generator.t
Sourceval int64_log_uniform_inclusive : Base.int64 -> Base.int64 -> Base.int64 Base_quickcheck.Generator.t
Log Space Distributions

Like the *_log_uniform_inclusive bindings above, but giving additional weight to corner cases, e.g. the given bounds.

Geometric Distributions

These generators produce a geometric distribution with a given minimum and probabilty p. In other words, with probability p, the minimum is produced. Otherwise, a value is effectively produced from a geometric distribution with the same p and a minimum one higher, although the implementation can be more efficent than this. If the result overflows, the function returns max_value for the integer type.

Raises if p <. 0. || 1. <. p..

Floating Point Distributions

Generates values between the given bounds, inclusive, which must be finite and in nondecreasing order. Weighted toward boundary values.

Generates values between the given bounds, exclusive, which must be finite and in increasing order, with at least one float value between them. Weighted approximately uniformly across the resulting range, rounding error notwithstanding.

Sourceval float_strictly_positive : Base.float Base_quickcheck.Generator.t
Sourceval float_strictly_negative : Base.float Base_quickcheck.Generator.t
Sourceval float_positive_or_zero : Base.float Base_quickcheck.Generator.t
Sourceval float_negative_or_zero : Base.float Base_quickcheck.Generator.t

Character Distributions

String Distributions

Sourceval string_with_length : length:Base.int -> Base.string Base_quickcheck.Generator.t

Produces strings similar to the input, with some number of edits.

Sexp Distributions

Produces s-expressions whose atoms are chosen from the given string distribution.

List Distributions

Randomly drops elements from a list. The length of each result is chosen uniformly between 0 and the length of the input, inclusive.

Sourceval list_permutations : 'a Base.list -> 'a Base.list Base_quickcheck.Generator.t

Produces permutations of the given list, weighted uniformly.

Bigarray Distributions

Low-Level Interface

These functions provide direct access to the pseudo-random state threaded through Base_quickcheck generators. Most users should not need these functions.

Passes in additional "salt" used to perturb the pseudo-random state used to generate random values. Generators' output is intended to be deterministic for any initial pseudorandom state, so perturb can be used to generate a new generator with the same distribution that nonetheless produces different values from the original for any given pseudo-random state.

Sourceval create : (size:Base.int -> random:Splittable_random.t -> 'a) -> 'a Base_quickcheck.Generator.t

Creates a generator that calls the given function with the current size parameter and pseudorandom state.

Sourceval generate : 'a Base_quickcheck.Generator.t -> size:Base.int -> random:Splittable_random.t -> 'a

Generates a random value using the given size and pseudorandom state. Useful when using create and dispatching to other existing generators.

Sourcemodule Debug : sig ... end