PHP unit testing anti-patterns and best practices

Anti-patterns for PHP unit testing include reliance on external services, testing implementation details, and too many assertions. Best practices recommend using stubs instead of external services, focusing on public interfaces, in-depth inspection of code through white-box testing, focusing on meaningful coverage, and grouping assertions into logical units. The reliability of testing can be enhanced by using stub frameworks such as Mockery.

PHP Unit Testing: Anti-Patterns and Best Practices

Introduction

Unit testing is a critical part of ensuring code reliability. However, executing unit tests incorrectly can have worse consequences. This article will explore common anti-patterns in PHP unit testing and provide best practices to help you avoid these pitfalls.

Anti-Pattern: Dependence on External Services

• Problem: Tests that rely on external services (such as databases or web services) are vulnerable to failure Impact.
• Best Practice: Use stubs or mocks to replace external services.

Anti-pattern: Testing implementation details

• Problem:Testing implementation details can hinder code refactoring and maintenance.
• Best Practice: Focus on testing public interfaces and dependencies, rather than specific implementations.

Anti-Pattern: Testing Black Box

• Problem:Black box testing can only verify the behavior of the code and cannot go into depth Understand the inner workings.
• Best Practices: Use white-box testing (such as line coverage) to test the logic and algorithms of your code.

Anti-Pattern: Coverage First

• Problem: Pursuing high coverage alone can lead to trivial or redundant Test, reduce maintainability.
• Best Practices: Focus on meaningful coverage, testing critical paths and important branches.

Anti-Pattern: Too Many Assertions

• Problem:Too many assertions can make testing code cluttered and difficult maintain.
• Best Practices: Group assertions into logical units and avoid duplicate or redundant assertions.

Best practice: Mockito stub

Practical case:

use PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase;
use Mockery\Adapter\Phpunit\MockeryPHPUnitIntegration;

class UserTest extends TestCase
{
    use MockeryPHPUnitIntegration;

    public function testUpdate()
    {
        $user = new User();
        $mockDatabase = $this->mock(Database::class);
        $mockDatabase->shouldReceive('update')->with($user)->andReturn(true);
        $user->update();
        $this->assertEquals($user->isDirty(), false);
    }
}

Conclusion

Avoiding these anti-patterns and adopting best practices can help create robust and maintainable PHP unit tests. Remember, the purpose of unit testing is to ensure that the code behaves as expected, not just to increase coverage. By carefully following these guidelines, you can build high-quality software with confidence and reliability.

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