unit-testing Getting started with unit-testing

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An XUnit test with parameters

using Xunit;

public class SimpleCalculatorTests
{
    [Theory]
    [InlineData(0, 0, 0, true)]
    [InlineData(1, 1, 2, true)]
    [InlineData(1, 1, 3, false)]
    public void Add_PassMultipleParameters_VerifyExpected(
        int inputX, int inputY, int expected, bool isExpectedCorrect)
    {
        // Arrange
        var sut = new SimpleCalculator();

        // Act
        var actual = sut.Add(inputX, inputY);

        // Assert
        if (isExpectedCorrect)
        {
            Assert.Equal(expected, actual);
        }
        else
        {
            Assert.NotEqual(expected, actual);
        }
    }
}

public class SimpleCalculator
{
    public int Add(int x, int y)
    {
        return x + y;
    }
}
 

A basic python unit test

import unittest

def addition(*args):
    """ add two or more summands and return the sum """

    if len(args) < 2:
        raise ValueError, 'at least two summands are needed'
    
    for ii in args: 
        if not isinstance(ii, (int, long, float, complex )):
            raise TypeError

    # use build in function to do the job
    return sum(args) 
 

Now the test part:

class Test_SystemUnderTest(unittest.TestCase):

    def test_addition(self):
        """test addition function"""

        # use only one summand - raise an error 
        with self.assertRaisesRegexp(ValueError, 'at least two summands'):
            addition(1)
        
        # use None - raise an error
        with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
            addition(1, None)
        
        # use ints and floats 
        self.assertEqual(addition(1, 1.), 2)

        # use complex numbers
        self.assertEqual(addition(1, 1., 1+2j), 3+2j)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main()
 

A basic unit test

At its simplest, a unit test consists of three stages:

• Prepare the environment for the test
• Execute the code to be tested
• Validate the expected behaviour matches the observed behaviour

These three stages are often called 'Arrange-Act-Assert', or 'Given-When-Then'.

Below is example in C# that uses the NUnit framework.

[TestFixture]
public CalculatorTest
{
   [Test]
   public void Add_PassSevenAndThree_ExpectTen()
   {
       // Arrange - setup environment
       var systemUnderTest = new Calculator();         

       // Act - Call system under test
       var calculatedSum = systemUnderTest.Add(7, 3);  
       
       // Assert - Validate expected result
       Assert.AreEqual(10, calculatedSum);             
  }
}
 

Where necessary, an optional fourth clean up stage tidies up.

A unit test with a spy (interaction test)

Classic unit tests test state, but it can be impossible to properly test methods whose behavior depends on other classes through state. We test these methods through interaction tests, which verify that the system under test correctly calls its collaborators. Since the collaborators have their own unit tests, this is sufficient, and actually a better test of the actual responsibility of the tested method. We don't test that this method returns a particular result given an input, but instead that it correctly calls its collaborator(s).

// Test that squareOfDouble invokes square() with the doubled value

let systemUnderTest = new Calculator()          // Arrange - setup environment
let square = spy()
systemUnderTest.setSquare(square)               //   inject a spy

let actual = systemUnderTest.squareOfDouble(3)  // Act - Call system under test

assert(square.calledWith(6))                    // Assert - Validate expected interaction
 

A unit test with stubbed dependency

Good unit tests are independent, but code often has dependencies. We use various kinds of test doubles to remove the dependencies for testing. One of the simplest test doubles is a stub. This is a function with a hard-coded return value called in place of the real-world dependency.

// Test that oneDayFromNow returns a value 24*60*60 seconds later than current time

let systemUnderTest = new FortuneTeller()       // Arrange - setup environment
systemUnderTest.setNow(() => {return 10000})    //   inject a stub which will 
                                                //   return 10000 as the result

let actual = systemUnderTest.oneDayFromNow()    // Act - Call system under test

assert.equals(actual, 10000 + 24 * 60 * 60)     // Assert - Validate expected result
 

In production code, oneDayFromNow would call Date.now(), but that would make for inconsistent and unreliable tests. So here we stub it out.

Simple Java+JUnit Test

JUnit is the leading testing framework used for testing Java code.

The class under test models a simple bank account, that charges a penalty when you go overdrawn.

public class BankAccount {
    private int balance;

    public BankAccount(int i){
        balance = i;
    }

    public BankAccount(){
        balance = 0;
    }

    public int getBalance(){
        return balance;
    }

    public void deposit(int i){
        balance += i;
    }

    public void withdraw(int i){
        balance -= i;
        if (balance < 0){
            balance -= 10; // penalty if overdrawn
        }
    }
}
 

This test class validates the behaviour of some of the BankAccount public methods.

import org.junit.Test;
import static org.junit.Assert.*;

// Class that tests
public class BankAccountTest{

    BankAccount acc;

    @Before                        // This will run **before** EACH @Test
    public void setUptestDepositUpdatesBalance(){
        acc = new BankAccount(100);  
    } 

    @After                        // This Will run **after** EACH @Test
    public void tearDown(){
    // clean up code
    }

    @Test
    public void testDeposit(){
       // no need to instantiate a new BankAccount(), @Before does it for us

        acc.deposit(100);

        assertEquals(acc.getBalance(),200); 
    }

    @Test
    public void testWithdrawUpdatesBalance(){    
        acc.withdraw(30);

        assertEquals(acc.getBalance(),70); // pass
    }

    @Test
    public void testWithdrawAppliesPenaltyWhenOverdrawn(){

        acc.withdraw(120);

        assertEquals(acc.getBalance(),-30);
    }
}
 

Unit Test with Parameters using NUnit and C#

using NUnit.Framework;

namespace MyModuleTests 
{
    [TestFixture]
    public class MyClassTests
    {
        [TestCase(1, "Hello", true)]
        [TestCase(2, "bye", false)]
        public void MyMethod_WhenCalledWithParameters_ReturnsExpected(int param1, string param2, bool expected)
        {
        //Arrange
        var foo = new MyClass(param1);

        //Act
        var result = foo.MyMethod(param2);

        //Assert
        Assert.AreEqual(expected, result);
        }
    }
}