Book Image

Test-Driven Python Development

By : Siddharta Govindaraj
Book Image

Test-Driven Python Development

By: Siddharta Govindaraj

Overview of this book

This book starts with a look at the test-driven development process, and how it is different from the traditional way of writing code. All the concepts are presented in the context of a real application that is developed in a step-by-step manner over the course of the book. While exploring the common types of smelly code, we will go back into our example project and clean up the smells that we find. Additionally, we will use mocking to implement the parts of our example project that depend on other systems. Towards the end of the book, we'll take a look at the most common patterns and anti-patterns associated with test-driven development, including integration of test results into the development process.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
Test-Driven Python Development
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgments
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Specific asserts versus generic asserts


One question that might come to your mind is why there are so many different assert methods. Why can't we just use assertTrue instead of the more specific assert, as shown in the following code:

assertInSeq(x, seq)
assertTrue(x in seq)

assertEqual(10, x)
assertTrue(x == 10)

While they are certainly equivalent, one motivation for using a specific assert is that you get a better error message if the assertion fails. When comparing objects like lists and dicts, the error message will show exactly where the difference occurs, making it much easier to understand. Therefore, it is recommended to use the more specific asserts wherever possible.