Problem
I’ve got some test data and want to write a unit test for each of the items. My first thought was to go about it this way:
import unittest
l = [["foo", "a", "a",], ["bar", "a", "b"], ["lee", "b", "b"]]
class TestSequence(unittest.TestCase):
def testsample(self):
for name, a,b in l:
print "test", name
self.assertEqual(a,b)
if __name__ == '__main__':
unittest.main()
The disadvantage is that it processes all data in a single test. On the fly, I’d like to generate one test for each item. Do you have any recommendations?
Asked by Peter Hoffmann
Solution #1
This is referred to as “parametrization.”
This method is supported by a number of tools. E.g.:
The following is the resultant code:
from parameterized import parameterized
class TestSequence(unittest.TestCase):
@parameterized.expand([
["foo", "a", "a",],
["bar", "a", "b"],
["lee", "b", "b"],
])
def test_sequence(self, name, a, b):
self.assertEqual(a,b)
Which will generate the tests:
test_sequence_0_foo (__main__.TestSequence) ... ok
test_sequence_1_bar (__main__.TestSequence) ... FAIL
test_sequence_2_lee (__main__.TestSequence) ... ok
======================================================================
FAIL: test_sequence_1_bar (__main__.TestSequence)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/parameterized/parameterized.py", line 233, in <lambda>
standalone_func = lambda *a: func(*(a + p.args), **p.kwargs)
File "x.py", line 12, in test_sequence
self.assertEqual(a,b)
AssertionError: 'a' != 'b'
I’ll save the original answer from 2008 for historical purposes):
I use a phrase like this:
import unittest
l = [["foo", "a", "a",], ["bar", "a", "b"], ["lee", "b", "b"]]
class TestSequense(unittest.TestCase):
pass
def test_generator(a, b):
def test(self):
self.assertEqual(a,b)
return test
if __name__ == '__main__':
for t in l:
test_name = 'test_%s' % t[0]
test = test_generator(t[1], t[2])
setattr(TestSequense, test_name, test)
unittest.main()
Answered by Dmitry Mukhin
Solution #2
The use of unittest (since 3.4)
The subTest context manager has been included in the standard library unittest package since Python 3.4.
See the documentation:
Example:
from unittest import TestCase
param_list = [('a', 'a'), ('a', 'b'), ('b', 'b')]
class TestDemonstrateSubtest(TestCase):
def test_works_as_expected(self):
for p1, p2 in param_list:
with self.subTest():
self.assertEqual(p1, p2)
You can also give subTest() a custom message and parameter values:
with self.subTest(msg="Checking if p1 equals p2", p1=p1, p2=p2):
Using nose
This is supported by the nose testing framework.
Example (the following code is the whole contents of the test file):
param_list = [('a', 'a'), ('a', 'b'), ('b', 'b')]
def test_generator():
for params in param_list:
yield check_em, params[0], params[1]
def check_em(a, b):
assert a == b
The following is the output of the nosetests command:
> nosetests -v
testgen.test_generator('a', 'a') ... ok
testgen.test_generator('a', 'b') ... FAIL
testgen.test_generator('b', 'b') ... ok
======================================================================
FAIL: testgen.test_generator('a', 'b')
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/nose-0.10.1-py2.5.egg/nose/case.py", line 203, in runTest
self.test(*self.arg)
File "testgen.py", line 7, in check_em
assert a == b
AssertionError
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 3 tests in 0.006s
FAILED (failures=1)
Answered by codeape
Solution #3
Metaclasses can be used to neatly handle this problem:
import unittest
l = [["foo", "a", "a",], ["bar", "a", "b"], ["lee", "b", "b"]]
class TestSequenceMeta(type):
def __new__(mcs, name, bases, dict):
def gen_test(a, b):
def test(self):
self.assertEqual(a, b)
return test
for tname, a, b in l:
test_name = "test_%s" % tname
dict[test_name] = gen_test(a,b)
return type.__new__(mcs, name, bases, dict)
class TestSequence(unittest.TestCase):
__metaclass__ = TestSequenceMeta
if __name__ == '__main__':
unittest.main()
Answered by Guy
Solution #4
Subtests have been added to unittest for this purpose as of Python 3.4. Details can be found in the documentation. TestCase. subTest is a context manager that isolates asserts in a test so that a failure can be communicated with parameter information while the test is still running. The following is an example from the documentation:
class NumbersTest(unittest.TestCase):
def test_even(self):
"""
Test that numbers between 0 and 5 are all even.
"""
for i in range(0, 6):
with self.subTest(i=i):
self.assertEqual(i % 2, 0)
A test run’s result would be:
======================================================================
FAIL: test_even (__main__.NumbersTest) (i=1)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "subtests.py", line 32, in test_even
self.assertEqual(i % 2, 0)
AssertionError: 1 != 0
======================================================================
FAIL: test_even (__main__.NumbersTest) (i=3)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "subtests.py", line 32, in test_even
self.assertEqual(i % 2, 0)
AssertionError: 1 != 0
======================================================================
FAIL: test_even (__main__.NumbersTest) (i=5)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "subtests.py", line 32, in test_even
self.assertEqual(i % 2, 0)
AssertionError: 1 != 0
This is also included in unittest2, so it can be used with older Python versions.
Answered by Bernhard
Solution #5
load tests is a little-known technique for dynamically creating a TestSuite that was introduced in 2.7. You may easily construct parametrized tests with it.
For example:
import unittest
class GeneralTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
def __init__(self, methodName, param1=None, param2=None):
super(GeneralTestCase, self).__init__(methodName)
self.param1 = param1
self.param2 = param2
def runTest(self):
pass # Test that depends on param 1 and 2.
def load_tests(loader, tests, pattern):
test_cases = unittest.TestSuite()
for p1, p2 in [(1, 2), (3, 4)]:
test_cases.addTest(GeneralTestCase('runTest', p1, p2))
return test_cases
That code will run all of the TestCases returned by load tests in the TestSuite. The discovery technique does not conduct any other tests automatically.
You can also use inheritance, as demonstrated in this bug: http://bugs.python.org/msg151444
Answered by Javier
Post is based on https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32899/how-do-you-generate-dynamic-parameterized-unit-tests-in-python