Explain the “setUp” and “tearDown” Python methods used in test cases

Question

Can anyone explain the use of Python\'s setUp and tearDown methods while writing test cases apart from that setUp is called immediately be

Answer 1

You can use these to factor out code common to all tests in the test suite.

If you have a lot of repeated code in your tests, you can make them shorter by moving this code to setUp/tearDown.

You might use this for creating test data (e.g. setting up fakes/mocks), or stubbing out functions with fakes.

If you're doing integration testing, you can use check environmental pre-conditions in setUp, and skip the test if something isn't set up properly.

For example:

class TurretTest(unittest.TestCase):

    def setUp(self):
        self.turret_factory = TurretFactory()
        self.turret = self.turret_factory.CreateTurret()

    def test_turret_is_on_by_default(self):
        self.assertEquals(True, self.turret.is_on())

    def test_turret_turns_can_be_turned_off(self):
        self.turret.turn_off()
        self.assertEquals(False, self.turret.is_on())