Book Image

Test-Driven Java Development, Second Edition - Second Edition

By : Viktor Farcic, Alex Garcia
Book Image

Test-Driven Java Development, Second Edition - Second Edition

By: Viktor Farcic, Alex Garcia

Overview of this book

Test-driven development (TDD) is a development approach that relies on a test-first procedure that emphasizes writing a test before writing the necessary code, and then refactoring the code to optimize it.The value of performing TDD with Java, one of the longest established programming languages, is to improve the productivity of programmers and the maintainability and performance of code, and develop a deeper understanding of the language and how to employ it effectively. Starting with the basics of TDD and understanding why its adoption is beneficial, this book will take you from the first steps of TDD with Java until you are confident enough to embrace the practice in your day-to-day routine.You'll be guided through setting up tools, frameworks, and the environment you need, and we will dive right into hands-on exercises with the goal of mastering one practice, tool, or framework at a time. You'll learn about the Red-Green-Refactor procedure, how to write unit tests, and how to use them as executable documentation.With this book, you'll also discover how to design simple and easily maintainable code, work with mocks, utilize behavior-driven development, refactor old legacy code, and release a half-finished feature to production with feature toggles.You will finish this book with a deep understanding of the test-driven development methodology and the confidence to apply it to application programming with Java.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Title Page
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
9
Refactoring Legacy Code – Making It Young Again
Index

Unit testing


Frequent manual testing is too impractical for any but the smallest systems. The only way around this is the use of automated tests. They are the only effective method to reduce the time and cost of building, deploying, and maintaining applications. In order to effectively manage applications, it is of the utmost importance that both the implementation and test codes are as simple as possible. Simplicity is one of the core extreme programming (XP) values (http://www.extremeprogramming.org/rules/simple.html) and the key to TDD and programming in general. It is most often accomplished through division into small units. In Java, units are methods. Being the smallest, the feedback loop they provide is the fastest so we spend most of our time thinking and working on them. As a counterpart to implementation methods, unit tests should constitute by far the biggest percentage of all tests.

What is unit testing?

Unit testing is a practice that forces us to test small, individual, and isolated...