Biocomputing II

Unit Testing

Prof. Andrew C.R. Martin, UCL

Introduction

Unit testing:

What is Unit Testing?

"A method of testing individual 'units' of source code to determine whether they are fit for use"

Why do it?

Anatomy of a test

flowchart

A simple example

#!/usr/bin/env python3

# --------------------------------------------------------------------------
def signedSquare(val):
    """Returns the square of a number, but if the number was negative
       the returned value is also negative
       Input:  val  A number to be squared
       Return:      the signed square of the number
    """

    # Simple way of doing it - not very neat
    if(val < 0):
        sign = -1
    else:
        sign = 1

    # Let's try the 'Conditional expressions' approach instead
    # sign = -1 if val < 0 else 1

    square = val * val

    return(sign * square)


# --------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Test code

if __name__ == "__main__":

    val = signedSquare(2)
    if(val != 4):
        print("signedSquare(2) failed")
    else:
        print("signedSquare(2) success")

    val = signedSquare(0)
    if(val != 0):
        print("signedSquare(0) failed")
    else:
        print("signedSquare(0) success")

    val = signedSquare(-2)
    if(val != -4):
        print("signedSquare(-2) failed")
    else:
        print("signedSquare(-2) success")


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Doing it better

#!/usr/bin/env python3

# --------------------------------------------------------------------------
def signedSquare(val):
    """Returns the square of a number, but if the number was negative
       the returned value is also negative
       Input:  val  A number to be squared
       Return:      the signed square of the number
    """

    sign = -1 if val < 0 else 1
    square = val * val

    return(sign * square)

# --------------------------------------------------------------------------
def runTestOneReturn(name, input, expected, actual):
    """Run a test on a subroutine that returns a single value. 
       Input is:
       name     - the name of the subroutine being tested
       input    - the input to that subroutine (in quotes if more than one item)
       expected - the expected output from the subroutine
       actual   - the actual output from the subroutine
    """

    if(expected == actual):
        print("Success: %s(%s)" % (name, input))
    else:
        print("Fail:    %s(%s) - expected %s, obtained %s" %
              (name, input, expected, actual))

# --------------------------------------------------------------------------
def test_signedSquare():
    """Run tests on the signedSquare() routine"""
    runTestOneReturn("signedSquare",  2,  4, signedSquare(2))
    runTestOneReturn("signedSquare",  0,  0, signedSquare(0))
    runTestOneReturn("signedSquare", -2, -4, signedSquare(-2))

# --------------------------------------------------------------------------
# MAIN PROGRAM: Run a set of tests
if __name__ == "__main__":
    test_signedSquare()


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