Finding and fixing bugs are time-consuming activities in software
development. Spectrum-based fault localization aims to identify the faulty
position in source code based on the execution trace of test cases. Failing
test cases and their assertions form test oracles for the failing behavior of
the system under analysis. In this paper, we propose a novel concept of
spectrum driven test case purification for improving fault localization. The
goal of test case purification is to separate existing test cases into small
fractions (called purified test cases) and to enhance the test oracles to
further localize faults. Combining with an original fault localization
technique (e.g., Tarantula), test case purification results in better ranking
the program statements. Our experiments on 1800 faults in six open-source Java
programs show that test case purification can effectively improve existing
fault localization techniques
