Add a test
Now that you've gotten your code to a stable place (nicely done, by the way),
add a test. Testing your code during development can expose bugs that find
their way in as you make changes. In this topic, you add a test for the
Hello
function.
Go's built-in support for unit testing makes it easier to test as you go.
Specifically, using naming conventions, Go's testing
package, and
the go test
command, you can quickly write and execute tests.
-
In the greetings directory, create a file called greetings_test.go.
Ending a file's name with _test.go tells the
go test
command that this file contains test functions. -
In greetings_test.go, paste the following code and save the file.
package greetings import ( "testing" "regexp" ) // TestHelloName calls greetings.Hello with a name, checking // for a valid return value. func TestHelloName(t *testing.T) { name := "Gladys" want := regexp.MustCompile(`\b`+name+`\b`) msg, err := Hello("Gladys") if !want.MatchString(msg) || err != nil { t.Fatalf(`Hello("Gladys") = %q, %v, want match for %#q, nil`, msg, err, want) } } // TestHelloEmpty calls greetings.Hello with an empty string, // checking for an error. func TestHelloEmpty(t *testing.T) { msg, err := Hello("") if msg != "" || err == nil { t.Fatalf(`Hello("") = %q, %v, want "", error`, msg, err) } }
In this code, you:
- Implement test functions in the same package as the code you're testing.
-
Create two test functions to test the
greetings.Hello
function. Test function names have the formTestName
, where Name says something about the specific test. Also, test functions take a pointer to thetesting
package'stesting.T
type as a parameter. You use this parameter's methods for reporting and logging from your test. -
Implement two tests:
-
TestHelloName
calls theHello
function, passing aname
value with which the function should be able to return a valid response message. If the call returns an error or an unexpected response message (one that doesn't include the name you passed in), you use thet
parameter'sFatalf
method to print a message to the console and end execution. -
TestHelloEmpty
calls theHello
function with an empty string. This test is designed to confirm that your error handling works. If the call returns a non-empty string or no error, you use thet
parameter'sFatalf
method to print a message to the console and end execution.
-
-
At the command line in the greetings directory, run the
go test
command to execute the test.The
go test
command executes test functions (whose names begin withTest
) in test files (whose names end with _test.go). You can add the-v
flag to get verbose output that lists all of the tests and their results.The tests should pass.
$ go test PASS ok example.com/greetings 0.364s $ go test -v === RUN TestHelloName --- PASS: TestHelloName (0.00s) === RUN TestHelloEmpty --- PASS: TestHelloEmpty (0.00s) PASS ok example.com/greetings 0.372s
-
Break the
greetings.Hello
function to view a failing test.The
TestHelloName
test function checks the return value for the name you specified as aHello
function parameter. To view a failing test result, change thegreetings.Hello
function so that it no longer includes the name.In greetings/greetings.go, paste the following code in place of the
Hello
function. Note that the highlighted lines change the value that the function returns, as if thename
argument had been accidentally removed.// Hello returns a greeting for the named person. func Hello(name string) (string, error) { // If no name was given, return an error with a message. if name == "" { return name, errors.New("empty name") } // Create a message using a random format. // message := fmt.Sprintf(randomFormat(), name) message := fmt.Sprint(randomFormat()) return message, nil }
-
At the command line in the greetings directory, run
go test
to execute the test.This time, run
go test
without the-v
flag. The output will include results for only the tests that failed, which can be useful when you have a lot of tests. TheTestHelloName
test should fail --TestHelloEmpty
still passes.$ go test --- FAIL: TestHelloName (0.00s) greetings_test.go:15: Hello("Gladys") = "Hail, %v! Well met!", <nil>, want match for `\bGladys\b`, nil FAIL exit status 1 FAIL example.com/greetings 0.182s
In the next (and last) topic, you'll see how to compile and install your code to run it locally.