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 Slides

Test-Driven

by Alex Chaffee

alexch @ gmail.com

Intended Audience

  • Developers or QA Engineers
  • Familiar with Unit Testing (optional)
  • Want more detail on Automated Testing in general
  • Want to know the case for Test-Driven Development
  • Want to know style tips and gotchas for Testing and TDD

Part I: Basic Techniques

Red, Green, Refactor

  • First, write a test and watch it fail
    • Make sure it's failing for the right reason!
  • Next, write just enough code to make it pass
    • Enjoy the green!
  • Finally, look at your code (and your test!) and see if you can clean it up
    • change names
    • remove duplication
    • extract methods

Make it green, then make it clean

Make it green

Addicted to green

  • You get a little rush every time a new test passes
  • Steady, incremental feeling of progress
  • Don't write code all day without knowing if it works

Blueprint for a Single Test

  • GIVEN (set up preconditions)
  • WHEN (call production code)
  • THEN (check the results)

Assert

  • The heart of a unit test
  • An assertion is a claim about the code

    • Failed assertion -> code is incorrect
    • Passing assertion -> code is correct
  • Example:

    Set set = new MySet();
    set.add("ice cream");
    assertTrue(set.contains("ice cream"));
    
  • In RSpec, "assert" is called "should" or "expect"

  • In Jasmine/Jest, "assert" is called "expect...to"

One Step At A Time

  • Don't be over-ambitious
  • Each test -- especially each new test -- should add one brick to the wall of knowledge
  • Pick tests (features) in order of growth

The Null Test

  • A great first test to write
  • Input and output are trivial
  • Helps you develop skeleton
  • Helps you think about interface

Test List

  • Before you begin, make a TODO list
  • Write down a bunch of operations
  • For each operation, list the null test and some others
  • Also put down refactorings that come to mind
  • Why not write all the tests in code first?
    • Could box you in
    • Interferes with red-green-refactor

Fake it till you make it

  • It's okay to hardcode answers for the first few tests
  • After a while, your tests will force your code to be more correct
  • If you refactor, you will almost always come up with a more elegant solution than a big switch statement

Assert First

  • When you get stuck on a test, try starting with the assertion(s) and then work your way backwards to the setup
  • Start with the assert

    assertTrue(set.contains("cake"));
    
  • Then add the code above it

    Set set = new MySet();
    set.add("cake");
    
  • Helps focus on goal

Fake It 'Til You Make It

  • Start with hardcoded results and wait until later tests to force them to become real

Obvious Implementation

  • aka Don't be stupid
  • If you really, really, honestly know the "right" way to implement it, then write it that way
  • But keep track of how many times your "obvious implementation" was broken or untested
    • Edge cases, off-by-one errors, null handling... all deserve tests and often the Obvious Implementation is not covered

Interlude: The Blank Page

  • Let's test-drive a utility class

Part II: Testing Philosophy

Automated Testing Layers

  • Unit
  • Integration
  • Acceptance
  • QA
  • UI
  • Performance
  • Monitoring

A Good Test Is...

  • Automated
  • Isolated
  • Repeatable
  • Fast
  • Easy to write and maintain
  • Focused
  • Easy to read
  • Robust (opposite: Brittle)

Tests are "Executable Specifications"

  • Someone should be able to understand your class by reading the tests

"Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand." – Martin Fowler

Why do you test?

Why do you test?

  • Design
  • Prevent bugs
  • Regress bugs ("bug repellant")
  • Discover bugs
  • Localize defects
  • Understand design
  • Document (or specify) design
  • Improve design
  • Support refactorings
  • Enable experimentation and change

When do you test?

When do you test?

  • Before checkin
  • After update
  • Before deploy
  • While coding
  • In the background

When do you test?

  • All the time

Why test first?

  • Gets tests written
  • Easier than retrofitting tests onto an existing system
  • Guarantees 100% test coverage
    • Note: not the same as 100% functional coverage, or a guarantee that your code does what it's supposed to

Why test first? (cont.)

  • Reduces scope of production code
    • less scope -> less work
  • Encourages better design
    • usable interfaces (since the tests are a working client)
    • more useful methods and fewer useless ones
    • Implementation matches design
  • Guarantees testability

Can't I write tests later?

  • In practice, you never have time after the code is written
  • but under TDD, you always have the time before
    • Go figure :-)

How can you write tests for code that doesn't exist?

Some tricks to get started:

  • Think of tests as examples or specs. Think of a thing the program should do, then write a test for just that one thing.
  • Test the null case -- what should happen when you call the function or construct the object with no parameters?
  • Write functioning code inside the test suite, then extract that code to a function or class, then move that function (or class) into the production codebase

"If you can't write a test, then you don't know what the code should do. And what business do you have writing code in the first place when you can't say what it's supposed to do?" - Rob Mee

Spike to Learn

If you don't know what test to write, then start with a spike.

A "spike" is an experiment, a proof of concept, a playground.

Code until you feel confident that you understand the general shape of the solution.

Then put your spike aside and write it again test-first.

Unit Testing Is Hard...

  • It forces you to really understand the requirements
  • It forces you to really understand the code
  • It forces you to really understand the tests
  • It forces you to create code that is truly reusable and modular and testable
    • "put your money where your mouth is"
  • These forces drive you to keep your code and your tests simple and easy to understand

...but it makes your life easier

Test-Driving Is Slower At First

  • Need to spend time on infrastructure, fixtures, getting comfortable with TDD
  • Business case for TDD: sustainable velocity
    • for feature velocity, stabilty > early oomph
  • Famous Graph

TDD vs TDD

  • Test-Driven Development
    • Good old-fashioned coding, now with tests!
    • Much of the design is already specified before you start
  • Test-Driven Design
    • Free your mind and the code will follow
    • Refactor at will, listen to what the tests are telling you

Quite a lot of overlap, but worth keeping difference in mind

Test for "essential complexity"

  • Not too big, not too small
  • Same concept as high coherence, low coupling

Tests Are An Extension of Code

  • Every time you write code, you write tests that exercise it
  • That means that if you change the code, and the tests break, you must either
    • Change the tests to match the new spec
    • Change the code to meet the old spec
  • Do not remove the failing tests
    • Unless they no longer apply to the new code's design or API
    • Do not work around the failing tests
  • Test code is not "wasted" or "extra" -- tests are first-class citizens

Meszaros' Principles of Test Automation

  • Write the tests first
  • Design for testability
  • Use the front door first
  • Communicate intent
  • Don't modify the SUT
  • Keep tests independent
  • Isolate the SUT
  • Minimize test overlap
  • Minimize untestable code
  • Keep test logic out of production code
  • Verify one condition per test
  • Test separate concerns separately
  • Ensure commensurate effort and responsibility

Part III: Advanced Techniques

What to test?

  • Simple Rule

Test everything that could possibly break

  • Depends on definitions of "everything" and "possibly" (and "break")
  • Corollary: don't test things that couldn't possibly break
    • e.g. Getters and Setters
    • Unless you think they could fail!
    • Better safe than sorry; test what you don't trust

How much to test?

  • Personal judgement, skill, experience
  • Usually, you start by testing too little, then you let a bug through
  • Then you start testing a lot more, then you gradually test less and less, until you let a bug through
  • Then you start testing too much again :-)
  • Eventually you reach homeostasis

Triangulate To Abstraction

  • aka "Fake it till you make it"
  • Make the code abstract only when you have two or more examples

Step one:

function testSum() {
  assertEquals(4, plus(3,1));
}
plus(x, y) {
  return 4;
}

Step two:

function testSum() {
  assertEquals(4, plus(3,1));
  assertEquals(5, plus(3,2));
}
function plus(x, y) {
  return x + y;
}

Full Range Testing

Positive Tests

  • exercise normal conditions ("sunny day scenarios")
  • E.g. Verify that after adding an element to a set, that element exists in the set

Negative Tests

  • Exercise failure conditions ("rainy day scenarios")
  • E.g. verify that trying to remove an element from an empty set throws an exception

Boundary Conditions

  • Exercise the limits of the system ("cloudy day")
  • E.g. adding the maximum number of elements to a set
  • E.g. test 0, -1, maximum, max+1

Descriptive Test Naming

  • instead of SetTest.testEmpty
  • how about SetTest.testShouldHaveSizeZeroWhenEmpty
  • or EmptySetTest.testHasSizeZero

nested "describe" blocks can help too...(see later slide)

Should Statements

  • Assertion messages can be confusing

    • (double negatives are not uncomplicated)
  • Example: assertTrue("set is empty", set.isEmpty());

    • Does FAILURE: set is empty mean
    • "the set must be empty, and it's not" or
    • "the set is empty, and that's a problem"
    • ?
  • Solution: should statements

    • assertTrue("set should be empty", set.isEmpty())
  • or even better:

    • assertTrue("a newly-created set should be empty", set.isEmpty())

Nested Describe Blocks

describe('Set', ()=> {
  let set;
  describe('when first created', ()=> {
    beforeEach(()=> {
      set = new Set();
    });

    it('should exist', ()=>{
      expect(set).toBeTruthy();
    })

    it('should be empty', ()=> {
      expect(set.size()).toBe(0);
    });
  });
});

Output:

  Set
    when first created
      ✓ should exist
      ✓ should be empty

Test-Only Methods

  • Philosophy: a test is a valid client of an object
  • Therefore don't be ashamed of adding a method to an object for the sake of making a test easier to write
  • Used -> Useful
  • Tests are examples of use

Refactoring Test Code

  • Do spend time refactoring your tests
  • It'll pay off later, when writing new tests or extending/debugging old ones
  • Refactor for readability, not necessarily for removing all duplication
    • Different priorities than for production code
    • MOIST not DRY

Refactoring Test Code - How?

  • Extract methods
  • Shorter lines
  • Break up long tests (scenario tests) into several short tests (feature tests)
  • RSpec

Evident Data

Increase test readability by clarifying your input and output values

assertEquals(86400, new Day().getSeconds())

vs.

assertEquals(60 * 60 * 24, new Day().getSeconds())

vs.

secondsPerMinute = 60
minutesPerHour = 60
hoursPerDay = 24
assertEquals(secondsPerMinute * minutesPerHour * hoursPerDay,
  new Day().getSeconds())

Matrix Tests

  • Problem: several axes of variability, combinatorial explosion
  • Solution: Loop through a matrix of data in your test, call a "check" function on each row
  • In dynamic languages like Ruby and JavaScript you can loop outside a function definition, producing one actual test per iteration
%w(a e i o u).each do |letter|
  it "#{letter} is a vowel" do
    assertTrue(letter.vowel?)
  end
end

Characterization Tests

  • aka "Golden Data Tests"
  • Grab the complete output of a routine, put it into the test
  • Not amenable to test-driven development
  • Effective for large or risky refactorings
  • Quite brittle, so often thrown away after the refactoring is done

How to Test Exceptions?

public void testUnknownCountry() {
  try {
    currencyConverter.getRate("Snozistan");
    fail("Should have thrown an exception for unknown country");
  } catch (UnknownCountryException e) {
    // ok
  }
}

The empty catch block is fine here, since here an exception is a success, not a failure to be handled.

Jasmine has a built-in way to test exceptions:

expect( function(){ parser.parse(bogus); } )
    .toThrow(new Error("Parsing is not possible"));

Characterization Tests

  • aka "Golden Data Tests"
  • Grab the complete output of a routine, put it into the test
  • Not amenable to test-driven development
  • Effective for large or risky refactorings
  • Quite brittle; often thrown away after the refactoring is done

Pair Programming

  • A pair's job is to keep you focused
    • "Wait, let's write a test first."
    • "Wait, let's refactor first."
    • "Wait, let's discuss this."
    • "Can I drive?"

Ping-Pong Pairing

  • One pair writes a test
  • The other pair makes it pass and writes the next test
  • Repeat
  • Good way to get out of a rut, or cure a keyboard hog

Regression Test

"Regression tests are tests that you would have written originally." - Kent Beck

  • When a bug is reported, the first step is to write a (failing) test that reproduces the bug
  • Fix the bug by writing code until the test passes
  • Verify the bug in the running application
  • Check in the bugfix test and code
  • Now it's always run – instant regression test!
  • If your regression test is high-level (e.g. Selenium), you probably want a failing unit test too

Do Over

  • Often the best thing to do is throw away your work and start again

Leave One For Tomorrow

  • At the end of the day, write a failing test and leave it there for tomorrow
  • Based on writer's trick: start a sentence and leave it unfinished

The Need For Speed

  • Tests are only valuable if they're run all the time
  • If they're slow, people will not want to run them all the time
  • So keep them fast!
  • Difficult quest, but worth it

  • Don't get stuck in molasses!

    • Refactor your code to be easier to write fast tests on
    • Replace slow tests with (one or more) fast tests that cover the same area
  • Corey Haines has some great tips for keeping Rails tests fast

Continuous Integration

  • Any time all the tests are green, you can check in
  • Run all the tests all the time
  • Don't check in until all tests pass
  • If you broke "someone else's" tests, you are responsible for fixing "their" code
  • Remember, they are in the room, so go get them if you need help

Retrofitting

Q: What to do when you have an existing untested codebase?

A: Start small!

  • Write one test, make it pass, check it in
  • Write tests for all new code
  • Write tests for all new bugs
  • Write tests before attempting refactoring

  • Usually easier to write characterization tests (UI/integration/Selenium)

    • But don't fall into the slow test trap

Fixtures and Factories

  • A natural progression of refactoring your test data
    • literals
    • constants
    • local variables
    • instance variables (defined in setup / before blocks)
    • creation methods
    • external fixture files
    • (used by Rails by default)
    • parameterized creation methods or objects
    • ("factories" or "object mothers")

Test Doubles (Mock Objects)

A Test Double replaces the "real" instance of an object used by the production code with something suitable for the currently running test, but with the same interface.

  • Stubs
  • Mocks
  • Fakes
  • Spies
  • Saboteurs
  • Shunts

Test Doubles in general are often called Mock Objects, but there's also a specific technical type of double called a Mock.

Test Doubles

  • Stubs
    • Hard-coded values
  • Mocks
    • Pre-programmed with expectations
    • Fail-fast
    • Test Doubles in general are often called Mock Objects, so be careful about terminology
  • Fakes
    • Can store values across calls, but don't really do what the live object would do
    • E.g. in-memory database

Test Doubles (cont.)

  • Spies
    • Remember what methods were called with what values
    • Tests can inspect these lists after code returns
  • Saboteurs
    • Blow up in ways that would be difficult to make happen for real
    • To test what would happen when, e.g., the database goes away, or the disk is full
  • Shunts
    • The test itself declares methods or classes implementing the above, and passes in a pointer to itself

Mock Clock

A very useful test double

In ruby:

@fake_time = Time.now
Time.stub(:now) { @fake_time }

In Jasmine (built in, see the docs for more details):

  it("causes a timeout to be called synchronously", function() {
    let timerCallback = jasmine.createSpy("timerCallback");

    setTimeout(function() {
      timerCallback();
    }, 100);

    expect(timerCallback).not.toHaveBeenCalled();

    jasmine.clock().tick(101);

    expect(timerCallback).toHaveBeenCalled();
  });

Complete Construction

  • a way of designing your objects to be more isolated and more testable

    • (a form of Dependency Injection aka Inversion of Control)
  • Pass in dependencies to the constructor

    • (or, if necessary, to setters)
  • An object under test will receive references to all external services

  • Allows tests to inject Test Doubles at will

  • Forces objects to be isolated

BDD (specs)

  • Changes the language of tests to emphasize that they're specifications or examples
  • Replaces "assert" with "should"

Outside-in vs. Inside-out

  • Matter of preference
  • Both are useful at times

Inside-out

  • Start with domain objects
  • Next layer of tests

Outside-in

  • Start with customer story or user interface
  • Makes you think like a user
  • Tests capture these requirements
  • Lower layers implemented with

Outside-in design, inside-out development

  • Write a bunch of UI-level tests
  • Leave them there while you test-drive inside-out

Part IV: Q&A

Thanks!