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Unit Testing Techniques and Best Practices | Ultimate Guide

Navdeep Singh Gill | 10 December 2024

Unit Testing Techniques and Best Practices

What is Unit Testing?

It is a type of testing in which individual units or functions of software testing. Its primary purpose is to test each unit or operation. A team is the smallest testable part of an application. It mainly has one or a few inputs and produces a single output. In procedural programming, a group is referred to as an individual program, while object-oriented programming languages include Base/Superclass, abstract class, and Derived/Child class takes place. Unit test frameworks, drivers, stubs, and mocks /fake objects are used in it. It works based on a White box technique. With Unit Testing, Enterprises can -
  • Improve Quality of Code
  • Build Reusable and Reliable Code
  • Simplify Documentation
  • Enable Seamless Integration

Intelligent Test Automation Improves Software Testing Capabilities. Source - Learn more Intelligent Testing capabilities

How does it function?

To do this, mocks are required. Is there a need for mocks to make testing on functions? Yes, without creating mock functions, they cannot be unit-tested. Testing works based on mock objects. Mock objects work to fill in for missing parts of a program. For example, a function might need variables or things that have not been created yet. To test the process, mock objects are created. In such conditions, mock objects fill in missing parts. Techniques within it

White-Box testing

It's referred to as glass box testing/transparent testing. In this type of testing, the tester is aware of internal functionality. The internal structure of an item or function to be tested is unknown.

Black-Box testing

It is a test in which the tester is not aware of the internal functionality of a system. The internal structure of the function to be tested is unknown.

Gray-Box testing

It's referred to as semi-transparent testing. It is a combination of Black Box and White Box testing. It is the type of testing in which the tester is aware of the internal functionality of a method or unit but not at a deeper level like white box testing. In this, the user is partially aware of the internal functionality of a system. Different types of testing covered under gray box testing are mentioned as follows.
  • Matrix testing.
  • Pattern Testing.
  • Orthogonal Pattern testing.
  • Regression Testing.

The best practices that a programmer must follow to amplify code reusability in a framework. Click to explore about, Design Patterns in Automation Testing

What advantages does Unit Testing offer?

Unit Tests reveal a basic understanding of API units or functions to understand the code's functionality. It is a way to write test cases for all functions and methods so that whenever a change causes a fault, then in that case, the bug is quickly identified and fixed. A modular approach followed in testing, single-single functionality or part of the code tested without waiting for other code to be completed.

What makes Unit Testing crucial?

It is a type of testing that increases the speed of testing. It helps to maintain and change the code. If good unit test cases are written for code and run every time the code changes, any defect is revealed after the code changes. Regulations should be more reusable; more modular unit testing will be possible. Writing test cases takes time, but this can be compensated by less time to run the tests.

Unit tests are more reliable, and development will be faster in the long run. It makes debugging easy. When a test fails, only the latest changes need to be debugged. With testing at a higher level or higher phases, changes made over many days/ weeks/months must be scanned or detected. The cost to fix detected bugs during testing is less than fixing the defects at higher levels. Compare the price to fix a fault when a bug is seen in a unit testing phase with the same bug detected in User Acceptance Testing. The effort required to find and fix defects found during Unit Testing is less than necessary to correct defects found during System Testing or Acceptance Testing.

A process that allows the user to check that the provided data, they deal with, is valid or complete. Click to explore about, Data Validation Testing Tools and Techniques

How do we adopt it?

To do this, unit test cases were created. Unit test cases are automated but still created manually. To do Unit Testing with an automated approach, the following steps must be considered - Write another section of code in an application to test a function. Later on, this section of code was finally removed to test code when an application was complete or when an application was working.

Isolation of a code - Isolate function to test it more rigorously. Isolate code to do Automated Unit Testing in a better way. Isolating functions/code helps to do testing in a good way. It helps to reveal dependencies between functions of code. Use the Test framework for developing automated test cases. While executing test cases, the framework displays logs for failed test cases. Nowadays, many frameworks automatically flag and report in summary for failed test cases. Depending upon failure, failure may halt subsequent testing.

What are the best practices?

There is no need to create test cases for every condition. Instead, focus on tests that impact the entire system's behavior. Before fixing a bug, write a test that exposes the defects.
  • The bug will re-occur if not appropriately cached.
  • Test suites should be more comprehensive.
  • Write test cases before fixing the defect.
  • Write test cases independent of each other. For example, if a code class depends upon a database, do not write a topic interacting with a database to test a class. Instead, create an abstract interface around that database connection and implement an interface with a mock object.
  • The most important thing for unit testing is to cover all the paths. Paying attention to loop conditions is also required.
  • Write cases to verify behavior and test cases to ensure the performance of the code.
  • Execute test cases continuously and frequently.

Adopting Best Practises of A/B Testing helps Enterprise to Improve Content Engagement and develop Multi-functional capabilities.Source - Discover How to Adopt A/B Testing effectively?

What are the best tools for Unit Testing?

The best tools for unit testing are listed below:

Jtest

Parasoft Jtest is an IDE plugin that leverages an open-source framework (JUnit,mockito, PowerMock, and Spring) with guidance and also provides one-click actions to create, scale, and maintain unit tests. Automating the time-consuming aspects of Unit Testing focuses on business logic and makes more meaningful test suits.

JUnit 

It is a tool that is free to use for Java programming language. It also provides support for assertions to identify test methods. JUnit is a type of tool that tests data first and then inserts it into a piece of code.

NUnit

It's used as a Testing framework, and this tool is used for all.Net languages. It is an open-source tool to write scripts manually. NUnit supports data-driven tests run in parallel.

JMockit

It is an open-source testing tool. JMockit is a code coverage tool. It helps in mocking of API with recording and verification of syntax. It is a type of tool that offers line coverage, path coverage, and data coverage.

EMMA

It is an open-source toolkit for analyzing and reporting code written in Java. EMMA supports coverage types like method, line, and basic block. It is a Java-based tool.

PHP Unit

It is a Testing tool for the PHP language. It takes small portions of code called units and tests each team separately. This testing tool uses pre-defined assertion methods to assert that the system should behave in a specific manner.


Java vs Kotlin
To identify bugs and errors during software development and increase product quality. Explore here for Test Driven Development Tools and Agile Process

Concluding 

In conclusion, this testing is only required to test each function independently. This type of testing saves time and cost. If the same issue is faced at Acceptance Testing, then the price will be higher compared to the cost of Unit Testing. Sometimes, to do Testing, there is a requirement to create mock objects to satisfy or fulfill the dependency of a method or a function. If a part depends on another position and another process is still not made, then the mock function object is used. You would also love to learn more about:

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navdeep-singh-gill

Navdeep Singh Gill

Global CEO and Founder of XenonStack

Navdeep Singh Gill is serving as Chief Executive Officer and Product Architect at XenonStack. He holds expertise in building SaaS Platform for Decentralised Big Data management and Governance, AI Marketplace for Operationalising and Scaling. His incredible experience in AI Technologies and Big Data Engineering thrills him to write about different use cases and its approach to solutions.

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