Any real word example about how setUp() and tearDown() should be used in PHPUnit?

Question

Methods setUp() and tearDown() are invoked before and after each test. But really, is there any real word example about why should I need this?

Answer 1

You can instantiate a bunch of fixture objects and have them available as instance variables in each test instead of constructing them individually for each test.

You can create resources like a file handle in the setUp then make sure you close them in tearDown. If you're writing temporary files, you can make sure you delete them. If you open a database connection, you can close it (though you might want to do that elsewhere - setupBeforeClass / tearDownAfterClass which get called for every test file, not for every test case.)

It's just a before/after hook which is a groovy thing to have in general. Use it to make your life easier, or don't use it.