unittest, order of test execution

[mk]

Hello everyone,

I've got 2 functions to test, extrfromfile which returns a list of
dictionaries, and extrvalues that extracts values from that list.

Now I can test them both in one test case, like this:

def test_extrfromfile(self):
valist = ma.extrfromfile('loadavg_unittest.txt')
valist_ut = [ {'day': '08-11-19', 'time': '12:41', 'val': 0.11},
{'day': '08-11-19', 'time': '12:42', 'val': 0.08},
{'day': '08-11-19', 'time': '12:43', 'val': 0.57},
{'day': '08-11-19', 'time': '12:44', 'val': 0.21},
{'day': '08-11-19', 'time': '12:45', 'val': 0.08},
{'day': '08-11-19', 'time': '12:46', 'val': 0.66},
{'day': '08-11-19', 'time': '12:47', 'val': 0.32},
{'day': '08-11-19', 'time': '12:48', 'val': 0.12},
{'day': '08-11-19', 'time': '12:49', 'val': 0.47},
{'day': '08-11-19', 'time': '12:50', 'val': 0.17}]
self.assertEqual(valist, valist_ut)

vlextr_ut = [0.11, 0.08, 0.57, 0.21, 0.08, 0.66, 0.32, 0.12,
0.47, 0.17]
vlextr = ma.extrvalues(valist)
self.assertEqual(len(vlextr_ut), len(vlextr))
for (idx, elem) in enumerate(vlextr_ut):
self.assertAlmostEqual(elem, vlextr[idx])


But I was wondering, *should* this test be separated into two unit
tests, one for each function? On the face of it, it looks that's how it
should be done.

This, however, raises the question: what's the order of test execution
in the unittest? And how to pass values between unit tests? Should I
modify 'self' in unit test?

Regards,
mk

 

[Yinon Ehrlich]

But I was wondering, *should* this test be separated into two unit
tests, one for each function? On the face of it, it looks that's how it
should be done.

This, however, raises the question: what's the order of test execution
in the unittest? And how to pass values between unit tests? Should I
modify 'self' in unit test?

It's OK to run some tests in the same function.
When one of the asserts fails, following the traceback will lead you
straight to your problem.

The order of test execution is done by default by sorting the test
functions alphabetically.
You may disable the sort by setting self.sortTestMethodsUsing to None.
The simplest way to pass values between tests is to use the class it
(self).

Yinon

 

[Yinon Ehrlich]

It's OK to run some tests in the same function.
When one of the asserts fails, following the traceback will lead you
straight to your problem.

The order of test execution is done by default by sorting the test
functions alphabetically.
You may disable the sort by setting self.sortTestMethodsUsing to None.

see: http://docs.python.org/library/unittest.html#unittest.TestLoader.sortTestMethodsUsing