Comments on: Unit testing protected/private methods in a class http://nocarrier.co.uk/2009/06/unit-testing-protectedprivate-methods-in-a-class/ PHP and some other bits... Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:31:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Unit Testing – private methods. « OwZone http://nocarrier.co.uk/2009/06/unit-testing-protectedprivate-methods-in-a-class/comment-page-1/#comment-13 Unit Testing – private methods. « OwZone Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:39:58 +0000 http://nocarrier.co.uk/?p=31#comment-13 [...] 2, 2009 by owzone I read an interesting post from an ex-colleagues blog recently around the subject of unit testing private methods when testing object oriented code. I [...] [...] 2, 2009 by owzone I read an interesting post from an ex-colleagues blog recently around the subject of unit testing private methods when testing object oriented code. I [...]

]]> By: Owain http://nocarrier.co.uk/2009/06/unit-testing-protectedprivate-methods-in-a-class/comment-page-1/#comment-12 Owain Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:20:09 +0000 http://nocarrier.co.uk/?p=31#comment-12 I would normally say that if you think that a private method requires it's own unit test then this is a good pointer towards the need to refactor the class - usually pushing the functionality of the private method into it's own collaborating class. However that is easier said that done when it comes to working with legacy code. In that situation I would probablly refactor the method from private to protected and create tests in the correct package hierarchy (java specific I realise). I suppose the answer depends on how pragmatic you're willing to be (and how much code is greenfield development). I would normally say that if you think that a private method requires it’s own unit test then this is a good pointer towards the need to refactor the class – usually pushing the functionality of the private method into it’s own collaborating class.

However that is easier said that done when it comes to working with legacy code. In that situation I would probablly refactor the method from private to protected and create tests in the correct package hierarchy (java specific I realise).

I suppose the answer depends on how pragmatic you’re willing to be (and how much code is greenfield development).

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