Does it make sense to create tests like this?

Question

lately I'm coming deeper into unit tests and I kind of stuck.

Example. we have method like this:

boolean isCheckOutChecked(NmCommandBean clientData) {
    return "checkOut".equalsIgnoreCase(clientData.getTextParameter("checkOut"));
}

Most of it depends by what clientData returns. There are two possibilities:

return null if can not find text parameter
return string value if did

Well... I have created two tests but wondering if does it have any sense to have tests like this? What will you do in this scenario?

@Test
void shouldReturnTrueWhenCheckoutIsChecked() {
    doReturn("checkOut").when(clientData).getTextParameter("checkOut");

    boolean checkOutChecked = formProcessor.isCheckOutChecked(clientData);
    assertTrue(checkOutChecked);
}

@Test
void shouldReturnFalseWhenCheckoutIsNotChecked() {
    doReturn(null).when(clientData).getTextParameter("checkOut");

    boolean checkOutChecked = formProcessor.isCheckOutChecked(clientData);
    assertFalse(checkOutChecked);
}

If data in `clientData` can change then this test makes sense — Krzysztof Majewski, Jul 30 '18 at 12:25
You should probably ask this on https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/ — Vatev, Jul 30 '18 at 13:02
For the record: you should really start by NOT using string *literals* in your production code, but **constants**. Or even **enums** to get to compile time safety. — GhostCat, Aug 01 '18 at 19:12

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 30 '18 at 12:24

1

Since you have hard-coded checkOut I'd say yes, we have these kind of tests in our product - called "safety net" tests, in case someone changes on UI side that parameter, we want to fail in tests, not in real code.

answered Jul 30 '18 at 12:24

Eugene

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 30 '18 at 12:33

In places where there are conditions/branches, it is very useful to have unit tests, so that all the basic scenarios are covered in unit test cases itself. This reduces the feedback time (the application need not be deployed to test the condition) and helps in faster development.

Does it make sense to create tests like this?

2 Answers2