出于几个原因，我不喜欢测试私有功能。它们如下(这些是TLDR人员的主要观点):

Typically when you're tempted to test a class's private method, it's a design smell. You can test them through the public interface (which is how you want to test them, because that's how the client will call/use them). You can get a false sense of security by seeing the green light on all the passing tests for your private methods. It is much better/safer to test edge cases on your private functions through your public interface. You risk severe test duplication (tests that look/feel very similar) by testing private methods. This has major consequences when requirements change, as many more tests than necessary will break. It can also put you in a position where it is hard to refactor because of your test suite...which is the ultimate irony, because the test suite is there to help you safely redesign and refactor!

我将用一个具体的例子来解释这些问题。事实证明，2)和3)之间存在某种复杂的联系，因此它们的示例类似，尽管我认为它们是不应该测试私有方法的不同原因。

有时测试私有方法是合适的，只是重要的是要意识到上面列出的缺点。我稍后会更详细地讨论它。

我还讨论了为什么TDD不是在最后测试私有方法的有效借口。

重构你摆脱糟糕设计的方法

One of the most common (anti)paterns that I see is what Michael Feathers calls an "Iceberg" class (if you don't know who Michael Feathers is, go buy/read his book "Working Effectively with Legacy Code". He is a person worth knowing about if you are a professional software engineer/developer). There are other (anti)patterns that cause this issue to crop up, but this is by far the most common one I've stumbled across. "Iceberg" classes have one public method, and the rest are private (which is why it's tempting to test the private methods). It's called an "Iceberg" class because there is usually a lone public method poking up, but the rest of the functionality is hidden underwater in the form of private methods. It might look something like this:

例如，您可能希望通过在字符串上连续调用GetNextToken()来测试它，并查看它是否返回预期的结果。这样的函数确实需要进行测试:该行为不是微不足道的，特别是如果您的标记规则很复杂的话。让我们假设它并没有那么复杂，我们只是想要用空格分隔的标记。所以你写了一个测试，它可能看起来像这样(一些语言不可知的伪代码，希望想法是清楚的):

TEST_THAT(RuleEvaluator, canParseSpaceDelimtedTokens)
{
    input_string = "1 2 test bar"
    re = RuleEvaluator(input_string);

    ASSERT re.GetNextToken() IS "1";
    ASSERT re.GetNextToken() IS "2";
    ASSERT re.GetNextToken() IS "test";
    ASSERT re.GetNextToken() IS "bar";
    ASSERT re.HasMoreTokens() IS FALSE;
}

Well, that actually looks pretty nice. We'd want to make sure we maintain this behavior as we make changes. But GetNextToken() is a private function! So we can't test it like this, because it wont even compile (assuming we are using some language that actually enforces public/private, unlike some scripting languages like Python). But what about changing the RuleEvaluator class to follow the Single Responsibility Principle (Single Responsibility Principle)? For instance, we seem to have a parser, tokenizer, and evaluator jammed into one class. Wouldn't it be better to just separate those responsibilities? On top of that, if you create a Tokenizer class, then it's public methods would be HasMoreTokens() and GetNextTokens(). The RuleEvaluator class could have a Tokenizer object as a member. Now, we can keep the same test as above, except we are testing the Tokenizer class instead of the RuleEvaluator class.

下面是它在UML中的样子:

注意，这种新设计增加了模块化，因此您可能会在系统的其他部分重用这些类(在此之前，私有方法根据定义是不可重用的)。这是分解RuleEvaluator的主要优势，同时增加了可理解性/局部性。

这个测试看起来非常相似，除了这次它实际上是编译的，因为GetNextToken()方法现在在Tokenizer类上是公共的:

TEST_THAT(Tokenizer, canParseSpaceDelimtedTokens)
{
    input_string = "1 2 test bar"
    tokenizer = Tokenizer(input_string);

    ASSERT tokenizer.GetNextToken() IS "1";
    ASSERT tokenizer.GetNextToken() IS "2";
    ASSERT tokenizer.GetNextToken() IS "test";
    ASSERT tokenizer.GetNextToken() IS "bar";
    ASSERT tokenizer.HasMoreTokens() IS FALSE;
}

通过公共接口测试私有组件，避免重复测试

Even if you don't think you can break your problem down into fewer modular components (which you can 95% of the time if you just try to do it), you can simply test the private functions through a public interface. Many times private members aren't worth testing because they will be tested through the public interface. A lot of times what I see is tests that look very similar, but test two different functions/methods. What ends up happening is that when requirements change (and they always do), you now have 2 broken tests instead of 1. And if you really tested all your private methods, you might have more like 10 broken tests instead of 1. In short, testing private functions (by using FRIEND_TEST or making them public or using reflection) that could otherwise be tested through a public interface can cause test duplication. You really don't want this, because nothing hurts more than your test suite slowing you down. It's supposed to decrease development time and decrease maintenance costs! If you test private methods that are otherwise tested through a public interface, the test suite may very well do the opposite, and actively increase maintenance costs and increase development time. When you make a private function public, or if you use something like FRIEND_TEST and/or reflection, you'll usually end up regretting it in the long run.

考虑Tokenizer类的以下可能实现:

假设SplitUpByDelimiter()负责返回一个数组，使数组中的每个元素都是一个令牌。此外，假设GetNextToken()只是这个向量上的迭代器。所以你的公开考试可能是这样的:

TEST_THAT(Tokenizer, canParseSpaceDelimtedTokens)
{
    input_string = "1 2 test bar"
    tokenizer = Tokenizer(input_string);

    ASSERT tokenizer.GetNextToken() IS "1";
    ASSERT tokenizer.GetNextToken() IS "2";
    ASSERT tokenizer.GetNextToken() IS "test";
    ASSERT tokenizer.GetNextToken() IS "bar";
    ASSERT tokenizer.HasMoreTokens() IS false;
}

让我们假设我们有迈克尔·费瑟所说的“摸索工具”。这个工具可以让你触摸别人的隐私部位。一个例子是googletest中的FRIEND_TEST，如果语言支持则为reflection。

TEST_THAT(TokenizerTest, canGenerateSpaceDelimtedTokens)
{
    input_string = "1 2 test bar"
    tokenizer = Tokenizer(input_string);
    result_array = tokenizer.SplitUpByDelimiter(" ");

    ASSERT result.size() IS 4;
    ASSERT result[0] IS "1";
    ASSERT result[1] IS "2";
    ASSERT result[2] IS "test";
    ASSERT result[3] IS "bar";
}

好吧，现在让我们假设需求发生了变化，标记化变得更加复杂。您认为一个简单的字符串分隔符是不够的，需要一个delimiter类来处理这项工作。当然，您希望有一个测试失败，但是当您测试私有函数时，这种痛苦会增加。

什么时候测试私有方法是合适的?

在软件中没有“一刀切”。有时“打破规则”是可以的(实际上是理想的)。我强烈建议，如果可以的话，不要测试私有功能。主要有两种情况，我认为这是可以接受的:

I've worked extensively with legacy systems (which is why I'm such a big Michael Feathers fan), and I can safely say that sometimes it is simply safest to just test the private functionality. It can be especially helpful for getting "characterization tests" into the baseline. You're in a rush, and have to do the fastest thing possible for here and now. In the long run, you don't want to test private methods. But I will say that it usually takes some time to refactor to address design issues. And sometimes you have to ship in a week. That's okay: do the quick and dirty and test the private methods using a groping tool if that's what you think is the fastest and most reliable way to get the job done. But understand that what you did was suboptimal in the long run, and please consider coming back to it (or, if it was forgotten about but you see it later, fix it).

也许在其他情况下，这是可以接受的。如果你认为这是可以的，并且你有一个很好的理由，那么就去做。没人阻止你。只是要注意潜在的成本。

TDD的借口

As an aside, I really don't like people using TDD as an excuse for testing private methods. I practice TDD, and I do not think TDD forces you to do this. You can write your test (for your public interface) first, and then write code to satisfy that interface. Sometimes I write a test for a public interface, and I'll satisfy it by writing one or two smaller private methods as well (but I don't test the private methods directly, but I know they work or my public test would be failing). If I need to test edge cases of that private method, I'll write a whole bunch of tests that will hit them through my public interface. If you can't figure out how to hit the edge cases, this is a strong sign you need to refactor into small components each with their own public methods. It's a sign your private functions are doing too much, and outside the scope of the class.

Also, sometimes I find I write a test that is too big of a bite to chew at the moment, and so I think "eh I'll come back to that test later when I have more of an API to work with" (I'll comment it out and keep it in the back of my mind). This is where a lot of devs I've met will then start writing tests for their private functionality, using TDD as the scapegoat. They say "oh, well I need some other test, but in order to write that test, I'll need these private methods. Therefore, since I can't write any production code without writing a test, I need to write a test for a private method." But what they really need to be doing is refactoring into smaller and reusable components instead of adding/testing a bunch of private methods to their current class.

注意:

不久前，我回答了一个关于使用GoogleTest测试私有方法的类似问题。在这里，我修改了这个答案，使之更加语言不可知。

附注:以下是Michael Feathers关于冰山课程和探索工具的相关讲座:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cVZvoFGJTU

不，你不应该测试私有方法，为什么?此外，流行的mock框架(如Mockito)不支持测试私有方法。

I understand the point of view where private methods are considered as implementations details and then don't have to be tested. And I would stick with this rule if we had to develop outside of the object only. But us, are we some kind of restricted developers who are developing only outside of objects, calling only their public methods? Or are we actually also developing that object? As we are not bound to program outside objects, we will probably have to call those private methods into new public ones we are developing. Wouldn't it be great to know that the private method resist against all odds?

我知道有些人会回答说，如果我们正在开发另一个公共方法到那个对象中，那么这个方法应该被测试，就是这样(私有方法可以在没有测试的情况下继续存在)。但这也适用于一个对象的任何公共方法:当开发一个web应用程序时，一个对象的所有公共方法都是从控制器方法调用的，因此可以认为是控制器的实现细节。

那么为什么我们要单元测试对象呢?因为这是非常困难的，不是说不可能，以确保我们正在测试控制器的方法与适当的输入将触发底层代码的所有分支。换句话说，我们在堆栈中的位置越高，测试所有行为就越困难。私有方法也是如此。

对我来说，私人方法和公共方法之间的界限是测试时的心理标准。对我来说更重要的标准是:

该方法是否在不同的地方被多次调用? 这种方法是否复杂到需要测试?

对于从测试中调用什么api，公共和私有并不是一个有用的区分，方法和类也不是。大多数可测试单元在一个上下文中是可见的，但在其他上下文中是隐藏的。

重要的是覆盖范围和成本。您需要最小化成本，同时实现项目的覆盖目标(行、分支、路径、块、方法、类、等价类、用例……)不管团队怎么决定)。

因此，使用工具来确保覆盖率，并设计您的测试以减少成本(短期和长期)。

不要让测试变得过于昂贵。 如果只测试公共入口是最便宜的，那就这样做。 如果测试私有方法成本最低，那就这么做。

随着您的经验越来越丰富，您将能够更好地预测何时值得重构以避免测试维护的长期成本。

其中一个要点是

如果我们测试以确保逻辑的正确性，并且私有方法携带逻辑，那么我们应该测试它。不是吗?我们为什么要跳过这个呢?

基于方法的可见性编写测试是完全无关的想法。

相反

另一方面，在原始类之外调用私有方法是一个主要问题。在一些模拟工具中，模拟私有方法也有局限性。(例:5)

虽然有一些工具如Power Mock支持这一点，但这是一个危险的操作。原因是它需要破解JVM来实现这一点。

一种可以解决的方法是(如果您想为私有方法编写测试用例)

将这些私有方法声明为受保护的。但在某些情况下可能不方便。

测试的目的是什么?

到目前为止，大多数答案都说私有方法是实现细节，只要公共接口经过良好测试并能够正常工作，这些实现细节就不重要(至少不应该)。如果测试的唯一目的是保证公共接口正常工作，那么这是绝对正确的。

就我个人而言，我对代码测试的主要用途是确保将来的代码更改不会导致问题，并且在出现问题时帮助我进行调试。我发现对私有方法的测试就像对公共接口的测试一样彻底(如果不是更彻底的话!)，可以进一步达到这个目的。

考虑:您有一个公共方法A，它调用私有方法B。A和B都使用方法C。C被更改(可能由您更改，也可能由供应商更改)，导致A开始测试失败。对B进行测试不是很有用吗，即使它是私有的，这样你就知道问题是在A使用C, B使用C，还是两者都有?

Testing private methods also adds value in cases where test coverage of the public interface is incomplete. While this is a situation we generally want to avoid, the efficiency unit testing depends both on the tests finding bugs and the associated development and maintenance costs of those tests. In some cases, the benefits of 100% test coverage may be judged insufficient to warrant the costs of those tests, producing gaps in the public interface's test coverage. In such cases, a well-targeted test of a private method can be a very effective addition to the code base.