Question

This is a simplified version of a class I’m writing a unit test for

class SomeClass {

    void methodA() {
        methodB();
        methodC();
        methodD();
    }

    void methodB() {
        //does something
    }

    void methodC() {
        //does something
    }

    void methodD() {
        //does something
    }
}

While writing the unit tests for this class, I’ve mocked out objects using EasyMock used in each method. It was easy to set up the mock objects and their expectation
In method B,C,and D. But to test method A, I have to set up A LOT more mock objects and their expectations. Also, I’m testing method A in different conditions, meaning I have to setup the mock objects many times with different expectations.

In the end, my unit test becomes hard to maintain and pretty cluttered. I was wondering if anyone has or seen a good solution to this problem.

Answer 1

If I understand your question correctly, I think that this is a matter of design. The nice thing about unit testing is that writing tests often forces you to make your design better. If you need to mock too many things while testing a method it often means you should split your class into two smaller classes, which will be easier to test (and write, and maintain, and bugfix, and reuse, etc.).

In your case, the method A seems to be at a higher level than methods A, B, C. You can consider removing it to a higher level class, that would wrap SomeClass:

class HigherLevelClass {
    ISomeClass someClass;

    public HigherLevelClass(ISomeClass someClass)
    {
        this.someClass = someClass;
    }

    void methodA() {
        someClass.methodB();
        someClass.methodC();
        someClass.methodD();
    }
}

class SomeClass : ISomeClass {
    void methodB() {
        //does something
    }

    void methodC() {
        //does something
    }

    void methodD() {
        //does something
    }
}

Now when you are testing methodA all you need to mock is the small ISomeClass interface and the three method calls.