Mocking Static Blocks in Java

Question

My motto for Java is \"just because Java has static blocks, it doesn\'t mean that you should be using them.\" Jokes aside, there are a lot of tricks in Java that make testing a

Answer 1

Occasionally, I find static initilizers in classes that my code depends on. If I cannot refactor the code, I use PowerMock's @SuppressStaticInitializationFor annotation to suppress the static initializer:

@RunWith(PowerMockRunner.class)
@SuppressStaticInitializationFor("com.example.ClassWithStaticInit")
public class ClassWithStaticInitTest {

    ClassWithStaticInit tested;

    @Before
    public void setUp() {
        tested = new ClassWithStaticInit();
    }

    @Test
    public void testSuppressStaticInitializer() {
        asserNotNull(tested);
    }

    // more tests...
}

Read more about suppressing unwanted behaviour.

Disclaimer: PowerMock is an open source project developed by two colleagues of mine.