Python unit test with base and sub class

Question

I currently have a few unit tests which share a common set of tests. Here\'s an example:

import unittest

class BaseTest(unittest.TestCase):

    def testCo         


        

Answer 1

Matthew Marshall's answer is great, but it requires that you inherit from two classes in each of your test cases, which is error-prone. Instead, I use this (python>=2.7):

class BaseTest(unittest.TestCase):

    @classmethod
    def setUpClass(cls):
        if cls is BaseTest:
            raise unittest.SkipTest("Skip BaseTest tests, it's a base class")
        super(BaseTest, cls).setUpClass()

Answer 2

Do not use multiple inheritance, it will bite you later.

Instead you can just move your base class into the separate module or wrap it with the blank class:

class BaseTestCases:

    class BaseTest(unittest.TestCase):

        def testCommon(self):
            print('Calling BaseTest:testCommon')
            value = 5
            self.assertEqual(value, 5)


class SubTest1(BaseTestCases.BaseTest):

    def testSub1(self):
        print('Calling SubTest1:testSub1')
        sub = 3
        self.assertEqual(sub, 3)


class SubTest2(BaseTestCases.BaseTest):

    def testSub2(self):
        print('Calling SubTest2:testSub2')
        sub = 4
        self.assertEqual(sub, 4)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main()

The output:

Calling BaseTest:testCommon
.Calling SubTest1:testSub1
.Calling BaseTest:testCommon
.Calling SubTest2:testSub2
.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 4 tests in 0.001s

OK

Answer 3

A way I've thought of solving this is by hiding the test methods if the base class is used. This way the tests aren't skipped, so the test results can be green instead of yellow in many test reporting tools.

Compared to the mixin method, ide's like PyCharm won't complain that unit test methods are missing from the base class.

If a base class inherits from this class, it will need to override the setUpClass and tearDownClass methods.

class BaseTest(unittest.TestCase):
    @classmethod
    def setUpClass(cls):
        cls._test_methods = []
        if cls is BaseTest:
            for name in dir(cls):
                if name.startswith('test') and callable(getattr(cls, name)):
                    cls._test_methods.append((name, getattr(cls, name)))
                    setattr(cls, name, lambda self: None)

    @classmethod
    def tearDownClass(cls):
        if cls is BaseTest:
            for name, method in cls._test_methods:
                setattr(cls, name, method)
            cls._test_methods = []

Answer 4

You can add __test__ = False in BaseTest class, but if you add it, be aware that you must add __test__ = True in derived classes to be able to run tests.

import unittest

class BaseTest(unittest.TestCase):
    __test__ = False

    def testCommon(self):
        print 'Calling BaseTest:testCommon'
        value = 5
        self.assertEquals(value, 5)

class SubTest1(BaseTest):
    __test__ = True

    def testSub1(self):
        print 'Calling SubTest1:testSub1'
        sub = 3
        self.assertEquals(sub, 3)


class SubTest2(BaseTest):
    __test__ = True

    def testSub2(self):
        print 'Calling SubTest2:testSub2'
        sub = 4
        self.assertEquals(sub, 4)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main()

Answer 5

Another option is not to execute

unittest.main()

Instead of that you can use

suite = unittest.TestLoader().loadTestsFromTestCase(TestClass)
unittest.TextTestRunner(verbosity=2).run(suite)

So you only execute the tests in the class TestClass

Answer 6

What are you trying to achieve? If you have common test code (assertions, template tests, etc), then place them in methods which aren't prefixed with test so unittest won't load them.

import unittest

class CommonTests(unittest.TestCase):
      def common_assertion(self, foo, bar, baz):
          # whatever common code
          self.assertEqual(foo(bar), baz)

class BaseTest(CommonTests):

    def testCommon(self):
        print 'Calling BaseTest:testCommon'
        value = 5
        self.assertEquals(value, 5)

class SubTest1(CommonTests):

    def testSub1(self):
        print 'Calling SubTest1:testSub1'
        sub = 3
        self.assertEquals(sub, 3)

class SubTest2(CommonTests):

    def testSub2(self):
        print 'Calling SubTest2:testSub2'
        sub = 4
        self.assertEquals(sub, 4)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main()