The Finale of CS448

Learning how to write tests for code has been what really made my education feel like it has come full circle. It has really provided a deeper understanding and a boost to my confidence while writing code. There has been countless times where during this course i would be kicking myself. Just wishing i had learned some things sooner, before all of the other big projects and homework assignments.

Every new computer science student comes in and starts cranking out code and programs. Over the years you are also introduced to a variety of things, one example that comes to mind is truth tables.

Before ever diving into the world of software testing, those tables, while logically making sense. Never really seemed to be fully applicable to what i was doing. For instance a program you are writing might have branches or loops with certain conditions, and you will notice the similarities regarding the true and false conditions and there outcomes.

However, this type of logic directly relates to being able to map out test cases. The following example is from a homework assignment that helps really illustrate the connection.

Once we began writing out our test cases in this fashion is where everything “clicked” in regards to past classes based on logic that i didn’t fully appreciate the value of.

With this connection also came the experiences regarding test driven development (see past blogs). While writing your first hello world program, it is quite obvious how simple it can be. It would be possible to expand upon to have testing make sense, but once someone has been exposed to creating multiple methods and classes. It is my belief that learning how to test them, even if it seems simple and silly, would go a long way.

Mocks and stubs could be slightly tricky for a new student of course, but learning how to just make a stub could go a long way.

Another portion i wish i had picked up sooner is called a define-use path. Being able to have a diagram directly depict the flow of a program can help so much while working through the thought process while developing and testing.

In conclusion learning and understanding how software testing works boosted my confidence in programming exponentially. Even while learning JavaScript on the fly having zero experience i found myself needing to use the same principals i had been taught through testing. In fact, i would jokingly argue, TDD felt backwards because we were taught how to program backwards! Or maybe that is the point?

From the blog Mikes CS Journey by Michael St. Germain and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Deciding on what to test can be a little tricky. If you only test a program using inputs that are “valid” you could find a bug later due to the fact an “invalid” input was entered or used. These invalid and valid value tests focus on the very edges of a program, earning itself the term edge case testing.

On the other hand you may have certain manipulations or branches in a program that will need to be tested. Those tests can also have a sort of interior version of edge case testing.

To give a more concrete example later i will use an example of having a make believe chance of rain calculator. We will keep it very basic just to understand the idea.

The following will be the specifications of the program.
temp < 60 = 0%
temp >= 60 = 50%
humidity < 50 = 10%
humidity >= 50 = 30%
chance of rain = temp% + humidity%

Below is a picture from a class activity that depicts this topic. There are 4 parts that are important to understand before you start deciding on and writing test cases.

Weak Normal:
A weak normal test will focus on valid inputs, checking the basic calculations or manipulations of a function. It will not test for all of the possible combinations.

Strong Normal:
A strong normal test will focus on all of the possible different outcomes. One would view it as a more in depth version of a weak testing. The amount of tests will very quickly add up. However it becomes more obvious how important it is to test every possible outcome as a program grows and has a higher chance to produce bugs.

Weak Robust:
A weak robust is more comparable to a weak normal. Reason being that it wont test for every possible outcome like a strong normal would. However the difference between a weak robust and weak normal is that the robust will incorporate some tests using invalid inputs.

Using our example of the rain chance calculator. Would you want to make sure that the chance of rain is only 30% if the humidity has a rating of 3,000? (usually 100% humidity is raining)

Strong Robust:
Last but absolutely not least, we have the strong robust test cases. This version of testing is where every single possible input and output is accounted for and testing. This is truly the strongest version of testing and can get extensive pretty quickly. Before diving into the tests themselves using the made up rain chance calculator. It is important to take a look at the formulas below

If we use the specs for our rain calculator and the formulas above, possible Strong robust test cases might look something like:

checking temp at -1, 0 and 1
checking temp at 59,60,61
(technically temperature wouldn’t have a maximum or minimum value to test)

checking humidity at -1, 0, 1
checking humidity at 49, 50, 51
checking humidity at 99, 100, 101

With all of those inputs accounted for you would then make sure the corresponding outputs for the final calculation are correct.

In conclusion it is obvious that strong robust testing is the superior option. However with a project of smaller scope, using a weak or normal version of testing could also be sufficient.

From the blog Mikes CS Journey by Michael St. Germain and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The thought process behind why to test was, in my opinion, an interesting and fun topic to explore. This will focus more on the abstract process of basic testing it should be obvious as to why you would want to make sure a program functions properly. Starting with a photo of a diagram we used in class.

This first diagram depicts how my brain used to think of programming. It can’t be understated just how much has been learned and how my thought process has changed due to learning how to test my programs. The diagram has 3 simple regions. 1 has specifications, 2 has implemented code and 3 would be the completed project, The implemented code meets specification. Short, sweet and simple.

This second diagram fully represents how i think now, and how everyone should be viewing it from the start in my opinion.

In the diagram there are three main circles. The top left returns and represents the specification of a program. That is what the end goals of what a project should be able to do. The top right also makes a comeback and is what has been implemented so far in a theoretical program. The bottom circle indicates test cases.

The team i worked with to answer questions regarding the diagram had a lot of fun poking at the over lapping aspects with our initial viewing of them.

Area 1 would be a completed project. The specifications have been met and implemented and there are tests that met expectations and pass (verified).

Area 2 has specifications and some of it is implemented, but there are no tests or the tests have not passed.

Area 3 is where we started it started to become a little silly. There is Implemented code that has tests but no one asked for it.

Area 4 I remember actually laughing at, would have some specifications and tests. However it would have no code to use those tests on.

The other areas follow a similar pattern ending with 7. Which we referred to as just a “useless” testcase.

As expected, the end goal of someone working on a project would be to end up in circle one.

Now that I’ve completed the course and reflect upon this diagram and our responses to what each area represents. It is a good measure of our inexperience with test driven development. In area 4 specifically, having some set specifications and tests for them made me laugh because what would be the need to have those tests. It wasn’t until later that i made the connection. Now i understand that would be a great point to start writing code from. Area 2 is where i would of thought to begin at the time.

As for area 7 and the “useless” test cases. I no longer feel there is such a thing, after the experience shared in my blog post Test Driven Development (part 2).

From the blog Mikes CS Journey by Michael St. Germain and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

At the end of the semester my group faced a true hands on experience of why TDD is so popular. While working on a group project to explore testing in languages other then JUnit, i took the initiative to try and create a basic java script program. I had spent quite a good amount of time writing and rewriting things until i thought we had a good program to write tests for together.

It didn’t take long for us to realize the error in our thinking had struck again. the code i had worked to create couldn’t even be tested. Luckily another group member was able to guide us into how the tests should be written.

Thus began the rewriting of the code i thought i had already written. Long story short the main issue was i had gone too far into playing with the HTML file. and we couldn’t figure out how to mock an HTML file (a learning experience for another time).

What we did was write out all of our tests first using mocha and chai. We quickly learned that the display for these tests was going to make the process quite a bit less painful. We started pulling functions and other pieces from the original code and put them into a separate file while running our tests on them.

This was when we realized what we had done was literally TDD, and if i had done it in the correct order it would have been much simpler and less time consuming.

good sources for mocha and chai with examples:
https://www.browserstack.com/guide/unit-testing-for-nodejs-using-mocha-and-chai

https://www.chaijs.com/

https://mochajs.org/

From the blog Mikes CS Journey by Michael St. Germain and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

When first being introduced to TDD (Test driven development) I was in class with my group. we all had the same feeling, this feels like were doing everything backwards!

We had been used to writing semi-clean code and then testing for it afterwards. Which in our inexperienced minds made perfectly good sense. Write some code. Then test that code.

However, after doing an assignment for class we started to realize the power of TDD. We were able to better organize our thoughts and methods before writing the code. A couple of us agreed that it kind of felt like having pseudo code and being able to write TESTABLE code was a skill. Lastly, when it came to refactoring things. We never had to rewrite entire tests, and we already had tests to work with to ensure our changes were working properly.

Some helpful resources:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14891967/understanding-stubs-fakes-and-mocks
(explains some of the terms needed)

https://junit.org/junit4/
(examples to follow for JUnit)

From the blog Mikes CS Journey by Michael St. Germain and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

*Through my teams experience we were getting a little confused on the differences of mocks and stubs, so i would like to explain each one separately.

Simply put, you can view a stub as a type of mock with more control and is a little easier then making a mock of an object. This picture helped me realize the difference.

As can be seen, by using a stub you can pretty much do everything a mock can, without having an entire mocked object. generally a stub will have the minimal amount of parts needed in order to make tests pass. the tests themselves are focused on the class itself, rather then the manipulation of an object. A stub will usually return a predetermined value. Hence why it can be viewed as a type of mock, but is still its own thing.

Sources:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31890991/how-to-use-stubs-in-junit-and-java
(photo source)

https://semaphoreci.com/community/tutorials/stubbing-and-mocking-with-mockito-2-and-junit
(helpful for understanding)

From the blog Mikes CS Journey by Michael St. Germain and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.