Hi, I was wondering if it's possible / if there are any simple methods known of storing unit-test functions and their data in separate files?
Perhaps this is a strange request, but it does an excellent job of modularizing code. As far as revision control goes, it makes it easier to discern between new or changed test cases, and changes in the test data. I've worked through this idea a bit and actually have a nearly working model. For example, when testing a class, I have a test module, which contains a class for testing each method of the class. This allows me to generalize each method's parameters into each class, which can then be overridden by the config file's data, something like as follows (with a really arbitrary example, Python 2.5 code): Demo code (midpoint.py): ======================= class Midpoint(object): def __init__(self, a, b): self.a = a self.b = b def mid(): return (self.a + self.b) / 2.0 def sum() return (self.a + self.b) Testing Code (test_Midpoint.py): =============================== import unittest import midpoint import sys, ConfigParser as configparser # set up the config file that overrides each class's data config = configparser.SafeConfigParser() config.read(sys.argv[0]) class test_Midpoint_mid(unittest.TestCase): def __init__(self): # default testing values self.none_values = ((None, 1), (0, None)) # override the default values with the config file values for key, value in config.items(self.__class__.__name__): if value: setattr(self, key, value) # a few tests of the method def test_rejectNone(self): for tests in self.none_values: self.assertRaises(TypeError, midpoint.Midpoint(tests[0], tests[1]).mid) # and repeat the concept for class test_Midpoint_sum Config Code (test_Midpoint.cfg): ============================== # override the default values of the test class's members [test_Midpoint_mid] none_values = ((-1, None), (None, -12.8)) What I haven't yet figured out how to do though, is properly override the default class member values with values from the config file. The config file's data is loaded as a string instead of as a list, as I'd want. This causes all the tests to fail, as while none_values needs to be interpreted as a list, it is instead understood as: " ((-1, None),\n (None, -12.8))" Does anyone have any solutions for these problems? First, is there a known and simple way to separate unit-test data and methods into separate files? Secondly, if not, is there a simple way to convert strings into other base types, like lists, dictionaries, and so forth? Or, am I going to have to write my own list-parsing methods? Would pickling help? I haven't yet had a chance to look into if or how that would work... If there's anything else I can clarify about this request, feel free to let me know. Thanks for any help you can provide, Nick -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
