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.
The docs for java.io.Serializable
are probably about as good an explanation as you'll get:
The serialization runtime associates with each serializable class a version number, called a serialVersionUID
, which is used during deserialization to verify that the sender and receiver of a serialized object have loaded classes for that object that are compatible with respect to serialization. If the receiver has loaded a class for the object that has a different serialVersionUID
than that of the corresponding sender's class, then deserialization will result in an
InvalidClassException
. A serializable class can declare its own serialVersionUID
explicitly by declaring a field named serialVersionUID
that must be static, final, and of type long
:
ANY-ACCESS-MODIFIER static final long serialVersionUID = 42L;
If a serializable class does not explicitly declare a serialVersionUID
, then the serialization runtime will calculate a default serialVersionUID
value for that class based on various aspects of the class, as described in the Java(TM) Object Serialization Specification. However, it is strongly recommended that all serializable classes explicitly declare serialVersionUID
values, since the default serialVersionUID
computation is highly sensitive to class details that may vary depending on compiler implementations, and can thus result in unexpected InvalidClassExceptions
during deserialization. Therefore, to guarantee a consistent serialVersionUID
value across different java compiler implementations, a serializable class must declare an explicit serialVersionUID
value. It is also strongly advised that explicit serialVersionUID
declarations use the private modifier where possible, since such declarations apply only to the immediately declaring class — serialVersionUID
fields are not useful as inherited members.
Best Answer
All the info you need, is provided in the release announcement for m2e 1.1: