Test-Driven Development question

Hockeyfan · 02-21-2005, 12:26 PM

I have had this nagging question about Test-Driven Development. How do I test methods that are considered void methods? Well methods that actually do something other then sets a value.

I am using JUnit and JDK 1.5 to do my coding.

While I was in school I was exposed to this type of development but I wasn't able to fully grasp it for a number of reasons. This being one of them. This is not a class project, its something I am doing on my own.

Hockeyfan

eric.r.turner · 02-22-2005, 12:03 AM

void methods by definition have side effects (otherwise there is NO point in having them!) You need to check the side effect. For example, if you have a void method that inserts data into a database then your unit tests should verify that. If you expect your method to throw exceptions, then you should write unit tests for those as well.

ChemicalBurn · 02-22-2005, 04:21 AM

Like eric said, your method is there for a reason, simply test out the result of the method. If you're setting the value, simply add a printout line of that value to make sure it works, then remove it after...

Hockeyfan · 02-26-2005, 03:55 PM

Does anyone know how to test conditional statements using JUnit. I have been able to test retun values but I also want to be able to create a test that tests the truth value of an if statement. I believe I've seen it before but I can't remember how to do it.

Thanks

Hockeyfan

machron1 · 03-03-2005, 03:58 AM

The whole deal with JUnit is you use its Assert(...) methods. When an assertion fails, that test fails.