我看到很多问题都在问“如何”用一种特定的语言进行单元测试,但没有人问“什么”、“为什么”和“什么时候”。

是什么? 它对我有什么用? 我为什么要用它? 什么时候用(什么时候不用)? 有哪些常见的陷阱和误解


当前回答

单元测试和TDD通常能让你对所编写的软件有更短的反馈周期。与在实现的最后有一个大型测试阶段不同,您可以增量地测试您所编写的所有内容。这大大提高了代码质量,正如您立即看到的那样,您可能会有错误。

其他回答

单元测试和TDD通常能让你对所编写的软件有更短的反馈周期。与在实现的最后有一个大型测试阶段不同,您可以增量地测试您所编写的所有内容。这大大提高了代码质量,正如您立即看到的那样,您可能会有错误。

I think the point that you don't understand is that unit testing frameworks like NUnit (and the like) will help you in automating small to medium-sized tests. Usually you can run the tests in a GUI (that's the case with NUnit, for instance) by simply clicking a button and then - hopefully - see the progress bar stay green. If it turns red, the framework shows you which test failed and what exactly went wrong. In a normal unit test, you often use assertions, e.g. Assert.AreEqual(expectedValue, actualValue, "some description") - so if the two values are unequal you will see an error saying "some description: expected <expectedValue> but was <actualValue>".

总之,单元测试将使测试更快,对开发人员来说更舒服。您可以在提交新代码之前运行所有的单元测试,这样就不会中断同一项目中其他开发人员的构建过程。

单元测试是在不需要该代码单元所依赖的基础设施的情况下对代码单元(例如单个函数)进行测试。即在隔离环境中进行测试。

例如,如果您正在测试的函数连接到数据库并执行更新,那么在单元测试中您可能不想执行该更新。如果这是一个积分测试,你会这样做,但在这个例子中,它不是。

因此,单元测试将测试您正在测试的“函数”中所包含的功能,而不会产生数据库更新的副作用。

假设函数从数据库中检索了一些数字,然后执行标准偏差计算。你想测试什么?标准偏差计算正确,还是数据从数据库返回?

在单元测试中,您只想测试标准偏差的计算是否正确。在集成测试中,您希望测试标准偏差计算和数据库检索。

单元测试与“只是打开一个新项目并测试这个特定的代码”的主要区别在于它是自动化的,因此是可重复的。

如果您手动测试代码,它可能会使您相信代码在当前状态下工作得很完美。但一周后,当你对它做了轻微的修改时呢?您是否愿意在代码发生任何更改时再次手工重新测试?很可能不会:-(

但是,如果您可以在任何时间运行您的测试,只需单击一下,以完全相同的方式,在几秒钟内,那么一旦有什么东西坏了,它们就会立即显示给您。如果您还将单元测试集成到您的自动化构建过程中,即使在看似完全无关的更改破坏了代码库中遥远部分的某些情况下,它们也会提醒您错误——当您甚至不会想到需要重新测试特定的功能时。

这是单元测试相对于手工测试的主要优势。但等等,还有更多:

unit tests shorten the development feedback loop dramatically: with a separate testing department it may take weeks for you to know that there is a bug in your code, by which time you have already forgotten much of the context, thus it may take you hours to find and fix the bug; OTOH with unit tests, the feedback cycle is measured in seconds, and the bug fix process is typically along the lines of an "oh sh*t, I forgot to check for that condition here" :-) unit tests effectively document (your understanding of) the behaviour of your code unit testing forces you to reevaluate your design choices, which results in simpler, cleaner design

反过来,单元测试框架使您更容易编写和运行测试。

这回答了为什么您应该进行单元测试。


下面的三个视频涵盖了javascript中的单元测试,但一般原则适用于大多数语言。

单元测试:现在的几分钟将节省几小时后- Eric Mann - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UmmaPe8Bzc

JS单元测试(非常好)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IYqgx8JxlU

编写可测试的JavaScript - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzjogCFO4Zo


Now I'm just learning about the subject so I may not be 100% correct and there's more to it than what I'm describing here but my basic understanding of unit testing is that you write some test code (which is kept separate from your main code) that calls a function in your main code with input (arguments) that the function requires and the code then checks if it gets back a valid return value. If it does get back a valid value the unit testing framework that you're using to run the tests shows a green light (all good) if the value is invalid you get a red light and you then can fix the problem straight away before you release the new code to production, without testing you may actually not have caught the error.

So you write tests for you current code and create the code so that it passes the test. Months later you or someone else need to modify the function in your main code, because earlier you had already written test code for that function you now run again and the test may fail because the coder introduced a logic error in the function or return something completely different than what that function is supposed to return. Again without the test in place that error might be hard to track down as it can possibly affect other code as well and will go unnoticed.


Also the fact that you have a computer program that runs through your code and tests it instead of you manually doing it in the browser page by page saves time (unit testing for javascript). Let's say that you modify a function that is used by some script on a web page and it works all well and good for its new intended purpose. But, let's also say for arguments sake that there is another function you have somewhere else in your code that depends on that newly modified function for it to operate properly. This dependent function may now stop working because of the changes that you've made to the first function, however without tests in place that are run automatically by your computer you will not notice that there's a problem with that function until it is actually executed and you'll have to manually navigate to a web page that includes the script which executes the dependent function, only then you notice that there's a bug because of the change that you made to the first function.

重申一下,在开发应用程序时运行测试将在编写代码时发现这类问题。如果没有适当的测试,你必须手动检查整个应用程序,即使这样也很难发现错误,你天真地将其发送到生产环境中,一段时间后,好心的用户会给你发送错误报告(这不会像你在测试框架中的错误消息那样好)。


It's quite confusing when you first hear of the subject and you think to yourself, am I not already testing my code? And the code that you've written is working like it is supposed to already, "why do I need another framework?"... Yes you are already testing your code but a computer is better at doing it. You just have to write good enough tests for a function/unit of code once and the rest is taken care of for you by the mighty cpu instead of you having to manually check that all of your code is still working when you make a change to your code.

此外,如果你不想进行单元测试,你也不必进行单元测试,但随着你的项目/代码库开始变得越来越大,引入错误的可能性也在增加,这是值得的。