Main Page | Modules | Namespace List | Class Hierarchy | Class List | Namespace Members | Class Members

Class Black Box Testing
[Concepts]

To provide a maximum reliability for all BALL classes, each class provides its own test program to ensure that each class compiles and behaves (at least basically) as intended. More...

Defines

#define PRECISION(a)   TEST::precision = (a);
 Define the precision for floating point comparisons.
#define START_TEST(class_name, version)
 Create the test header for a certain class.
#define END_TEST
 Termination of test program.
#define CHECK(test_name)
 Declare subtest name.
#define STATUS(message)
 Print a status message.
#define RESULT
 Check subtest result.
#define NEW_TMP_FILE(filename)
 Create a temporary filename.
#define TEST_REAL_EQUAL(a, b)
 Floating point equality macro.
#define TEST_EQUAL(a, b)
 Generic equality macro.
#define TEST_NOT_EQUAL(a, b)
 Generic inequality macro.
#define TEST_EXCEPTION(exception_type, command)
 Exception test macro.
#define ABORT_IF(condition)   if (condition) break;
 Skip remainder of subtest.
#define TEST_FILE(filename, templatename)
 File comparison macro.
#define TEST_FILE_REGEXP(filename, templatename)
 Regular expression file comparison macro.
#define CAPTURE_OUTPUT_LEVEL(level)
 Redirect output to the global logging facility.
#define CAPTURE_OUTPUT_LEVEL_RANGE(minlevel, maxlevel)
 Redirect output to the global logging facility.
#define COMPARE_OUTPUT(text)
 Compare output made to the global logging facility.

Detailed Description

To provide a maximum reliability for all BALL classes, each class provides its own test program to ensure that each class compiles and behaves (at least basically) as intended.

The testprograms reside in the directory source/TEST, they may be built and executed by calling make test.

Each test program prints after execution either "PASSED" or "FAILED". If any of the subtest contained in the test program fails, the whole test failed. The result of the test program can also be checked via its exit code. An exit code of zero means "PASSED", non-zero exit code means "FAILED".

There are several macros defined to simplify the creation of a test program and to provide a common interface. Each test program consists of several subtests which usually test one method or property of the class. Each of this subtests uses a series of elementary tests to check the functionality of the method.

A number of elementary tests has been implemented that is sufficient for most cases:

To create a new test program, use the file source/TEST/Skeleton_test.C

Define Documentation

#define ABORT_IF (  condition   )     if (condition) break;
 

Skip remainder of subtest.

If the condition is not fulfilled, the remainder of the test is skipped. The status (whether it fails or passes) remains unchanged.

#define CAPTURE_OUTPUT_LEVEL (  level   ) 
 

Value:

{\
    std::ostrstream TEST_strstr;\
    Log.remove(std::cout);\
    Log.remove(std::cerr);\
    Log.insert(TEST_strstr, level, level);
Redirect output to the global logging facility.

This macro (together with COMPARE_OUTPUT ) can be used to ensure that a function prints an error message to the global logging facility Log . It disables the output to cout and cerr and redirects all output to level to a temporary ostringstream. The contents of this stream can be compared with the expected output afterwards using the macro COMPARE_OUTPUT . Each CAPTURE_OUTPUT requires exactly one subsequent COMPARE_OUTPUT macro.

#define CAPTURE_OUTPUT_LEVEL_RANGE (  minlevel,
maxlevel   ) 
 

Value:

{\
    std::ostrstream TEST_strstr;\
    Log.remove(std::cout);\
    Log.remove(std::cerr);\
    Log.insert(TEST_strstr, minlevel, maxlevel);
Redirect output to the global logging facility.

This macro (together with COMPARE_OUTPUT ) can be used to ensure that a function prints an error message to the global logging facility Log . It disables the output to cout and cerr and redirects all output to level to a temporary ostringstream. The contents of this stream can be compared with the expected output afterwards using the macro COMPARE_OUTPUT . Each CAPTURE_OUTPUT requires exactly one subsequent COMPARE_OUTPUT macro.

#define CHECK (  test_name   ) 
 

Value:

TEST::test = true;\
  TEST::newline = false;\
  if (TEST::verbose > 0)\
    std::cout << "checking " << #test_name << "... " << std::flush;\
  try\
  {\
    while (true)\
    {\
Declare subtest name.

This macro is used to declare the name of a subtest. If you want to check e.g. the setName method of a class, insert a line

CHECK(setName)#
in your test program. If the test program is called in verbose mode, this leads to the name of the subtest being printed on execution.
This macro also opens a try block to catch any unexpected exceptions thrown in the course of a subtest. To catch wanted exceptions (i.e. to check for exceptions that are the expected result of some command) use the TEST_EXCEPTION macro. The try block opened by CHECK is closed in RESULT , so these two macros have to be balanced.

#define COMPARE_OUTPUT (  text   ) 
 

Value:

Log.remove(TEST_strstr);\
    Log.insert(std::cout, LogStream::INFORMATION_LEVEL, LogStream::ERROR_LEVEL - 1);\
    Log.insert(std::cerr, LogStream::ERROR_LEVEL);\
    TEST::this_test = (::strncmp(TEST_strstr.str(), text, TEST_strstr.str()!=0?strlen(TEST_strstr.str()):0) == 0);\
    TEST::test = TEST::test && TEST::this_test;\
    \
    if ((TEST::verbose > 1) || (!TEST::this_test && (TEST::verbose > 0)))\
    {\
      /* reserve space for the null-terminated content of the strstrem */\
      char* TEST_strstr_contents = new char[TEST_strstr.str()!=0?strlen(TEST_strstr.str()):0 + 1];\
      ::strncpy(TEST_strstr_contents, TEST_strstr.str(), TEST_strstr.str()!=0?strlen(TEST_strstr.str()):0);\
      TEST_strstr_contents[TEST_strstr.str()!=0?strlen(TEST_strstr.str()):0] = '\0';\
      \
      if (!TEST::newline)\
      {\
        TEST::newline = true;\
        std::cout << std::endl;\
      }\
      std::cout << "    (line " << __LINE__ << " COMPARE_OUTPUT(" << #text << "): got '" << (TEST_strstr_contents) << "', expected '" << (text) << "') ";\
      if (TEST::this_test)\
        std::cout << " + " << std::endl;\
      else \
        std::cout << " - " << std::endl;\
      delete [] TEST_strstr_contents;\
    }\
  }
Compare output made to the global logging facility.

See also:
CAPTURE_OUTPUT

#define END_TEST
 

Termination of test program.

This macro implements the correct termination of the test program and should therefore be the last macro to call. It determines the exit code based on all previously run subtests and prints out the message "PASSED" or "FAILED". This macro also closes the global try block opened by START_TEST and contains the related catch clauses. If an exception is caught here, the test program fails.

#define NEW_TMP_FILE (  filename   ) 
 

Value:

::File::createTemporaryFilename(filename);\
          TEST::tmp_file_list.push_back(filename);\
          if (TEST::verbose > 1)\
          {\
            if (!TEST::newline) \
            {\
              TEST::newline = true;\
              std::cout << std::endl;\
            }\
            std::cout << "  creating new temporary file '" << filename << "' (line " << __LINE__ << ")" << std::endl;\
          }\
Create a temporary filename.

This macro assigns a new temporary filename to the string variable given as its argument. The filename is created using File::createTemporaryFilename . All temporary files are deleted if END_TEST is called.

Parameters:
filename String will contain the filename on completion of the macro

#define PRECISION (  a   )     TEST::precision = (a);
 

Define the precision for floating point comparisons.

The macro TEST_REAL_EQUAL checks whether the floating point number returned by the subtest is close to the expected result by comparing the absolute value of the difference of the two values to PRECISION.

The default value is $10^{-6}$. It is possible to redefine precision in the test program by calling this macro with the new value.

#define RESULT
 

Check subtest result.

Each elementary test macro updates an internal variable (TEST, defined by START_TEST ) that holds the state of the current subtest.

RESULT prints whether the subtest has failed or passed in verbose mode and updates the internal variables TEST::all_tests that describes the state of the whole class test. TEST::all_tests is initialized to be true. If any elementary test fails, TEST::test becomes false. At the time of the next call to RESULT, TEST::all_tests will be set to false, if TEST::test is false. One failed elementary test leads therefore to a failed subtest, which leads to a failed class test.
This macro closes the try block opened by CHECK, so CHECK and RESULT have to be balanced, or some ugly compile-time errors may occur. RESULT first tries to catch all BALL exceptions (i.e. exceptions derived from GeneralException). If this fails, it tries to catch any exception. After the exception is thrown, the execution will continue with the next subtest, the current subtest will be marked as failed (as is the whole test program).

#define START_TEST (  class_name,
version   ) 
 

Create the test header for a certain class.

This macro defines the start of the test program for a given classname. The classname is printed together with some information when calling the test program with any arguments (except for #-v# or #-V#).

This macro should be the first to call in a test program. It introduces a global try block to catch any unwanted exceptions. If any of these exceptions occurs, all tests failed. Exceptions defined by BALL (i.e. exception classes derived from GeneralException ) provide some additional information that is evaluated by the END_TEST macro. The END_TEST macro also closes the try block. This try block should never catch an exception! All exceptions that are thrown due to some malfunction in one of the member functions should be caught by the try block created by CHECK and RESULT .

#define STATUS (  message   ) 
 

Value:

if (TEST::verbose > 1)\
          {\
            if (!TEST::newline) \
            {\
              TEST::newline = true;\
              std::cout << std::endl;\
            }\
            std::cout << "  status (line " << __LINE__ << "): " << message << std::endl;\
          }\
Print a status message.

If tests require longer preparations, STATUS may be used to print some intermediated progress messages. STATUS uses cout to print these messages (in verbose mode only). The given stream expression message is prefixed by the string status: and terminated with a newline. All valid operations on a stream may be performed in message.

Example: 
		STATUS("just calculated x = " << setprecision(10) << x)

#define TEST_EQUAL (  a,
b   ) 
 

Value:

{\
    TEST::this_test = ((a) == (b));\
    TEST::test = TEST::test && TEST::this_test;\
    if ((TEST::verbose > 1) || (!TEST::this_test && (TEST::verbose > 0)))\
    {\
      if (!TEST::newline)\
      {\
        TEST::newline = true;\
        std::cout << std::endl;\
      }\
      std::cout << "    (line " << __LINE__ << " TEST_EQUAL(" << #a << ", " << #b << "): got " << (a) << ", expected " << (b) << ") ";\
      if (TEST::this_test)\
        std::cout << " + " << std::endl;\
      else \
        std::cout << " - " << std::endl;\
    }\
  }\
Generic equality macro.

This macro uses the operator == to check its two arguments for equality. Besides handling some internal stuff, it basically evaluates #((a) == (b))#.

Remember that operator == has to be defined somehow for the two argument types.
Parameters:
a value/object to test
b expected value

#define TEST_EXCEPTION (  exception_type,
command   ) 
 

Exception test macro.

This macro checks if a given type of exception occured while executing the given command. Example:

TEST_EXCEPTION(Exception::IndexOverflow, vector3[-1])#
If no or a wrong exception occured, false is returned, otherwise true.
Parameters:
exception_type the exception-class
command any general C++ or BALL-specific command

#define TEST_FILE (  filename,
templatename   ) 
 

File comparison macro.

This macro is used to test file operations. It compares the file with name filename against a template file templatename. Corresponding lines of the two files have to be identical.

See also:
TEST_FILE_REGEXP for more sophisticated comparisons

#define TEST_FILE_REGEXP (  filename,
templatename   ) 
 

Regular expression file comparison macro.

This macro is used to test file operations. It compares the file with name filename against a template file templatename. Each line of the template file starting with ``/'' is considered to contain a regular expression, which has to match the corresponding line in the input file. All other lines of the input and the template file have to be identical.

#define TEST_NOT_EQUAL (  a,
b   ) 
 

Value:

{\
    TEST::this_test = !((a) == (b));\
    TEST::test = TEST::test && TEST::this_test;\
    if ((TEST::verbose > 1) || (!TEST::this_test && (TEST::verbose > 0)))\
    {\
      if (!TEST::newline)\
      {\
        TEST::newline = true;\
        std::cout << std::endl;\
      }\
      std::cout << "    (line " << __LINE__ << " TEST_NOT_EQUAL(" << #a << ", " << #b << "): got " << (a) << ", forbidden is " << (b) << ") ";\
      if (TEST::this_test)\
        std::cout << " + " << std::endl;\
      else \
        std::cout << " - " << std::endl;\
    }\
  }\
Generic inequality macro.

This macro checks for inequality as TEST_EQUAL tests for equality. The only difference between the two macros is that TEST_NOT_EQUAL evaluates #!((a) == (b))#.

Parameters:
a value/object to test
b forbidden value

#define TEST_REAL_EQUAL (  a,
b   ) 
 

Value:

TEST::this_test = BALL_REAL_EQUAL((a), (b), TEST::precision); \
  TEST::test = TEST::test && TEST::this_test;\
  if ((TEST::verbose > 1) || (!TEST::this_test && (TEST::verbose > 0)))\
  {\
    if (!TEST::newline)\
    {\
      TEST::newline = true;\
      std::cout << std::endl;\
    }\
    std::cout << "    (line " << __LINE__ << " TEST_REAL_EQUAL("<< #a << ", " << #b << "): got " << (a) << ", expected " << (b) << ") ";\
    if (TEST::this_test)\
      std::cout << " + " << std::endl;\
    else \
      std::cout << " - " << std::endl;\
  }\
Floating point equality macro.

Checks whether the absolute value of the difference of the two floating point values a and b is less or equal to the value defined by PRECISION .

Parameters:
a floating point value to test
b expected value