PHP - calling a private method for testing, what's the correct design?

Question

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PhpUnit private method testing

In my unit tests I need to call a private method to set my fixtures to a given state. On the other hand, I'd rather not make this method public. How do I go about this?

Thanks, I'm flagging it for closing then. Sorry I didn't find it. — d33tah, Dec 01 '12 at 14:51

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 01 '12 at 14:42

4

Why not make those functions protected and create a derived class for testing purposes? That class can have public functions for testing that can initialize the various variables etc.

answered Dec 01 '12 at 14:42

Ed Heal

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And it's not necessary to have a subclass - you can just mock such class. Of course, it will create subclass with randomized name, but you do not need to make a subclass by yourself. – scriptin Dec 01 '12 at 14:46

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 01 '12 at 14:47

Unit testing private methods is generally a bad idea, but if you really want to, reflection is the way to go. This should do it:

$reflection_class = new ReflectionClass($object_under_test);
$method = $reflection_class->getMethod('nameOfMethod');
$method->setAccessible(true);
$method->invoke($object_under_test, $param);

HTH

PHP - calling a private method for testing, what's the correct design?

2 Answers2