C# – How to test private methods with NUnit

cnunittestingunit testing

I am wondering how to use NUnit correctly. First, I created a separate test project that uses my main project as reference. But in that case, I am not able to test private methods. My guess was that I need to include my test code into my main code?! – That doesn't seem to be the correct way to do it. (I dislike the idea of shipping code with tests in it.)

How do you test private methods with NUnit?

Best Answer

Generally, unit testing addresses a class's public interface, on the theory that the implementation is immaterial, so long as the results are correct from the client's point of view.

So, NUnit does not provide any mechanism for testing non-public members.

Related Solutions

Java – How to test a class that has private methods, fields or inner classes

Update:

Some 10 years later perhaps the best way to test a private method, or any inaccessible member, is via @Jailbreak from the Manifold framework.
@Jailbreak Foo foo = new Foo();
// Direct, *type-safe* access to *all* foo's members
foo.privateMethod(x, y, z);
foo.privateField = value;
This way your code remains type-safe and readable. No design compromises, no overexposing methods and fields for the sake of tests.

If you have somewhat of a legacy Java application, and you're not allowed to change the visibility of your methods, the best way to test private methods is to use reflection.

Internally we're using helpers to get/set private and private static variables as well as invoke private and private static methods. The following patterns will let you do pretty much anything related to the private methods and fields. Of course, you can't change private static final variables through reflection.

Method method = TargetClass.getDeclaredMethod(methodName, argClasses);
method.setAccessible(true);
return method.invoke(targetObject, argObjects);

And for fields:

Field field = TargetClass.getDeclaredField(fieldName);
field.setAccessible(true);
field.set(object, value);

Notes:
1. TargetClass.getDeclaredMethod(methodName, argClasses) lets you look into private methods. The same thing applies for getDeclaredField.
2. The setAccessible(true) is required to play around with privates.

Python – How to test that a Python function throws an exception

Use TestCase.assertRaises (or TestCase.failUnlessRaises) from the unittest module, for example:

import mymod

class MyTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
    def test1(self):
        self.assertRaises(SomeCoolException, mymod.myfunc)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Java – How to test a class that has private methods, fields or inner classes

Python – How to test that a Python function throws an exception

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