Chapter 2: Data Driven Testing▲
This chapter demonstrates how to execute a test multiple times with different test data.
So far, we have hard coded the data we wanted to test into our test function. If we add more test data, the function might look like this:
QCOMPARE(QString("hello"
).toUpper(), QString("HELLO"
));
QCOMPARE(QString("Hello"
).toUpper(), QString("HELLO"
));
QCOMPARE(QString("HellO"
).toUpper(), QString("HELLO"
));
QCOMPARE(QString("HELLO"
).toUpper(), QString("HELLO"
));
To prevent the function from being cluttered with repetitive code, Qt Test supports adding test data to a test function. All we need is to add another private slot to our test class:
class
TestQString: public
QObject
{
Q_OBJECT
private
slots:
void
toUpper_data();
void
toUpper();
}
;
Writing the Data Function▲
A test function's associated data function has _data appended to its name. Our data function looks like this:
void
TestQString::
toUpper_data()
{
QTest::
addColumn&
lt;QString&
gt;("string"
);
QTest::
addColumn&
lt;QString&
gt;("result"
);
QTest::
newRow("all-lower"
) &
lt;&
lt; "hello"
&
lt;&
lt; "HELLO"
;
QTest::
newRow("mixed"
) &
lt;&
lt; "Hello"
&
lt;&
lt; "HELLO"
;
QTest::
newRow("all-upper"
) &
lt;&
lt; "HELLO"
&
lt;&
lt; "HELLO"
;
}
First, we define the two elements of our test table using the QTest::addColumn() function: a test string and the expected result of applying the QString::toUpper() function to that string.
Then, we add some data to the table using the QTest::newRow() function. Each set of data will become a separate row in the test table.
QTest::newRow() takes one argument: a name that will be associated with the data set and used in the test log to identify the data set. Then, we stream the data set into the new table row. First an arbitrary string, and then the expected result of applying the QString::toUpper() function to that string.
You can think of the test data as a two-dimensional table. In our case, it has two columns called string and result and three rows. In addition, a name and an index are associated with each row:
index |
name |
string |
result |
---|---|---|---|
0 |
all-lower |
"hello" |
HELLO |
1 |
mixed |
"Hello" |
HELLO |
2 |
all-upper |
"HELLO" |
HELLO |
When data is streamed into the row, each datum is asserted to match the type of the column whose value it supplies. If any assertion fails, the test is aborted.
Rewriting the Test Function▲
Our test function can now be rewritten:
void
TestQString::
toUpper()
{
QFETCH(QString, string);
QFETCH(QString, result);
QCOMPARE(string.toUpper(), result);
}
The TestQString::toUpper() function will be executed three times, once for each entry in the test table that we created in the associated TestQString::toUpper_data() function.
First, we fetch the two elements of the data set using the QFETCH() macro. QFETCH() takes two arguments: The data type of the element and the element name. Then, we perform the test using the QCOMPARE() macro.
This approach makes it very easy to add new data to the test without modifying the test itself.
Preparing the Stand-Alone Executable▲
And again, to make our test case a stand-alone executable, the following two lines are needed:
QTEST_MAIN(TestQString)
#include
"testqstring.moc"
As before, the QTEST_MAIN() macro expands to a simple main() method that runs all the test functions, and since both the declaration and the implementation of our test class are in a .cpp file, we also need to include the generated moc file to make Qt's introspection work.
Building the Executable▲
You can build the test case executable using CMake or qmake.
Building with CMake▲
Configure your build settings in your CMakeLists.txt file:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16
)
project(tutorial2 LANGUAGES CXX)
set(CMAKE_AUTOMOC ON)
if
(NOT DEFINED INSTALL_EXAMPLESDIR)
set(INSTALL_EXAMPLESDIR "examples"
)
endif()
set(INSTALL_EXAMPLEDIR "${INSTALL_EXAMPLESDIR}/qtestlib/tutorial2"
)
find_package(Qt6 REQUIRED COMPONENTS Core Gui Test Widgets)
qt_add_executable(tutorial2
testqstring.cpp
)
set_target_properties(tutorial2 PROPERTIES
WIN32_EXECUTABLE TRUE
MACOSX_BUNDLE TRUE
)
target_link_libraries(tutorial2 PUBLIC
Qt::
Core
Qt::
Gui
Qt::
Test
Qt::
Widgets
)
install(TARGETS tutorial2
RUNTIME DESTINATION "${INSTALL_EXAMPLEDIR}"
BUNDLE DESTINATION "${INSTALL_EXAMPLEDIR}"
LIBRARY DESTINATION "${INSTALL_EXAMPLEDIR}"
)
Next, from the command line, run either cmake or use the qt-cmake convenience script located in Qt-prefix/<version>/<platform>/bin/qt-cmake:
&
lt;Qt-
prefix&
gt;/&
lt;version&
gt;/&
lt;platform&
gt;/
bin/
qt-
cmake &
lt;source-
dir&
gt; &
lt;build-
dir&
gt; -
G Ninja
Then, run your preferred generator tool to build the executable. Here, we're using Ninja:
ninja
Building with qmake▲
Configure your build settings in your .pro file:
QT +=
widgets testlib
SOURCES =
testqstring.cpp
# install
target.path =
$$[QT_INSTALL_EXAMPLES]/
qtestlib/
tutorial2
INSTALLS +=
target
Next, run qmake, and, finally, run make to build your executable:
qmake
make
Running the Executable▲
Running the resulting executable should give you the following output:
*********
Start testing of TestQString *********
Config
:
Using QtTest library %
VERSION%
, Qt %
VERSION%
PASS : TestQString::
initTestCase()
PASS : TestQString::
toUpper(all-
lower)
PASS : TestQString::
toUpper(mixed)
PASS : TestQString::
toUpper(all-
upper)
PASS : TestQString::
cleanupTestCase()
Totals
:
5
passed, 0
failed, 0
skipped, 0
blacklisted, 0
ms
*********
Finished testing of TestQString *********