DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Refcards Trend Reports Events Over 2 million developers have joined DZone. Join Today! Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile Manage Email Subscriptions Moderation Admin Console How to Post to DZone Article Submission Guidelines
View Profile
Sign Out
Refcards
Trend Reports
Events
Zones
Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Partner Zones AWS Cloud
by AWS Developer Relations
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Partner Zones
AWS Cloud
by AWS Developer Relations
Securing Your Software Supply Chain with JFrog and Azure
Register Today

Trending

  • Top 10 Pillars of Zero Trust Networks
  • 5 Common Data Structures and Algorithms Used in Machine Learning
  • New ORM Framework for Kotlin
  • Future of Software Development: Generative AI Augmenting Roles and Unlocking Co-Innovation

Trending

  • Top 10 Pillars of Zero Trust Networks
  • 5 Common Data Structures and Algorithms Used in Machine Learning
  • New ORM Framework for Kotlin
  • Future of Software Development: Generative AI Augmenting Roles and Unlocking Co-Innovation
  1. DZone
  2. Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
  3. Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
  4. Why shouldn't I test private methods?

Why shouldn't I test private methods?

David Green user avatar by
David Green
·
Mar. 07, 14 · Interview
Like (1)
Save
Tweet
Share
19.13K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

Newcomers to TDD ask some interesting questions, here’s one I was asked recently: testing private methods is bad, but why?

How did we get here?

If you’re trying to test private methods, you’re doing something wrong. You can’t get to TDD nirvana from here, you’re gonna have to go back.

It all started with an innocuous little class with an innocuous little method. It did one little job, had a nice little unit test to verify it did its thing correctly. All was right with the world. Then, I had to add an extra little piece of logic. I wrote a test for it, changed the class until the test passed. Happy place. Then I started refactoring. I realised my little method, with its handful of test cases was getting quite complicated, so I used the extract method refactoring and boom! I have a private method.

While simple when I extracted it, another couple of corner cases and this private method evolves into quite a complicated piece of code – which now I’m testing one level removed: I’m testing the overall functionality of my outer method, which indirectly tests the behaviour of the private method. At some point I’m going to hit a corner case that’s quite awkward to test from the outside, it’d be so much easier if I could just test the private method directly.

What not to do

Don’t use a test framework that let’s you test private methods. Good God, no. For the love of all that is right with the world step away from the keyboard.

What to do instead

This is a prime example of your tests speaking to you. They’re basically shouting at you. But what are they saying?

Your design stinks!

If you need to test a private method – what you’re doing wrong is design. Almost certainly, what you’ve identified in your private method is a whole new responsibility. If you think about it carefully, it probably isn’t anything to do with what your original class is. Although your original class might need renaming to make that obvious. That’s ok, too. That’s incremental design at work.

An example would help about now

Say I started off with a Portfolio class – it has a bunch of Assets in it, each of which has a Value. So I can implement a Portfolio.GetValue() to tell me how much it’s all worth. But then I start dealing with weird corner cases like opening or closing prices. And what do I mean by value, what I could sell it for, right now? Or perhaps there’s some foreign currency conversion to do, or penalty clauses for early exit, how does all that get factored in?

Before too long, GetValue() has a fairly large piece of logic, which I extract into GetSpotSalePrice(Asset). This method is then hairy enough to need testing, so it’s pretty clear that my design stinks. The deafening din of my tests, finally persuades me to extract GetSpotSalePrice(Asset) into another class, but here’s the million dollar question: which?

What not to do – part 2

For the love of SOLID, don’t put it in a AssetSalePriceCalculator, or a SalePriceManager. This is the number one easy mistake to make – you can follow TDD and ignore decent OO design and still end up with a steaming turd pile of horribleness.

A NounVerber class is always a design smell. Just stop doing it. Now. I mean it. I’m watching you. I will hunt you down and feed you to the ogre of AbstractSingletonProxyFactoryBean.

What should I do then?

The answer might seem obvious, but to too many people starting out doing TDD and half-decent design – it isn’t at all obvious. The method needs to move to a class where that responsibility makes sense. In our example, it’s crushingly obvious this is really a method on Asset – it even passes one in. If your method has one class parameter and uses a bunch of data from that class, you can bet your bottom dollar you’re suffering feature envy. Sort your life out, apply the method move refactoring. Go live happily ever after.

Summary

Why shouldn’t you test private methods? Because the fact you’re asking the question means the method shouldn’t be private – it’s a piece of independent behaviour that warrants testing. The hard choice, the design decision, is where you stick it.

unit test

Published at DZone with permission of David Green, DZone MVB. See the original article here.

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Trending

  • Top 10 Pillars of Zero Trust Networks
  • 5 Common Data Structures and Algorithms Used in Machine Learning
  • New ORM Framework for Kotlin
  • Future of Software Development: Generative AI Augmenting Roles and Unlocking Co-Innovation

Comments

Partner Resources

X

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Send feedback
  • Careers
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 600 Park Offices Drive
  • Suite 300
  • Durham, NC 27709
  • support@dzone.com

Let's be friends: