Unit testing

Unit tests are a type of software testing that checks the functionality of individual software components. Its main purpose is to confirm the correct operation of each individual unit of code – a function, method, procedure, or object.

Unit, or unit testing refers to the WhiteBox methods, and is carried out taking into account the internal mechanisms of the system. Often, it is performed by the developer himself after writing a piece of code.

By itself, a unit test is a small program designed to test a specific piece of code. That is, during software development, programmers create not only the functionality of the software, but also separate tests that check its performance at the lowest level.

At first glance, such “double work” may seem inappropriate, since it takes the developer extra time. But in reality, tests greatly speed up development, and help develop the code in the future, without the risk of unforeseen bugs.

The main advantages of unit tests:

• Speed ​​up work.
  Each new line of code can have an unpredictable impact on the performance of the entire project. A unit test helps to instantly detect the cause of a “breakdown” and make the necessary adjustments without manually going through thousands of previously written lines of code.
• Provide clear documentation.
  Not only one programmer, but a whole team can work on the creation of a software product, which is why the purpose of a function written by one specialist may not be obvious to another.

In this case, the rozrobnik can be turned up to a unit test, which will help you to define the parameters of the function and that it will call out after the vikonnannya. In simple words, unit-testing is a lot of work to do with someone else’s code.

• Make safe refactoring.
  In some cases, the process of developing or updating software may require refactoring – a reworked internal structure of the program, so as not to get stuck in the current behavior. If the code is covered by unit tests, the risk of bug fixing is reduced to a minimum.
• Forgive the breakdown.
  Zavdyaki tests, most of the time the program spends on writing the functions of software security, and not asking for pardons.
• Savings on roads.
  Unit test oscillators revise the code on the lowest level – as soon as it was written by a programmer, they help to detect and fix problems immediately, without checking the higher stages of testing. Later, the number of hours is changing, which is stained with fakes, and the number of pardons is being reduced.

In large projects, there are a large number of dependencies, when the execution of one function calls another and, as a result, affects the most different parts of the software product. Therefore, to conduct unit testing, developers often use test frameworks that mimic software functions.

With their help, you can isolate the desired part of the code and check its performance “in a vacuum” – separately from the rest of the code. Most often, a unit test is written immediately after writing the code, according to the principle: “new code – new test”. This helps to identify problems here and now, without waiting for the code to grow.

Since programmers write a large number of unit tests, there are certain requirements for them:

• Simplicity. The purpose of a test is to show what a particular function returns and what happens to the input. Therefore, it should be simple and short so as not to take a lot of time from the developer.
• Clarity. A good unit test demonstrates the behavior of a piece of code, and it should give the developer a clear understanding of what script is being tested, if it has bugs, and if so, where to fix them. Ideally, with the help of a unit test, a programmer should be able to fix a bug without debugging the code.

• Reliability. Unit tests should work correctly regardless of the environment or execution order.
• Speed. During the development of a software product, unit tests are run many times to check the correctness of the code in different conditions and with different relationships. One slow test will not have a big impact on the entire system, but if there are a thousand of them, it can become a serious problem. Therefore, the speed of unit tests is extremely important.
• Lack of integrations. To ensure unbiased results that exclude external factors, unit tests and the system under test should not access network resources, databases, or the file system.

AVADA MEDIA specialists carry out full testing of each developed project. We perform:

• unit tests;
• functional testing;
• configuration testing;
• localization testing;
• stress testing;
• usability testing;

• security testing.

This gives us the opportunity to guarantee the quality and stability of any project, regardless of its scale.

We provide code coverage with unit tests in the range of 70-100%, depending on the feasibility and features of each individual software product.

To learn more about the stages of development and testing of software products in AVADA MEDIA, contact us in a convenient way, or fill out the form below.