Relax, Have a Mockito!
Unit testing is kind of like a safety net for your code, ensuring individual components work as expected before integrating them into a complete system. A key challenge in unit testing is figuring out what to do with the dependencies. This is where stubs and mocks become important.
The Difference Between Stubs and Mocks
A stub is a simplified version of a dependent class that returns hardcoded values. It allows you to test your code without requiring the actual dependencies for the code.
A mock, is a more powerful alternative. Created using frameworks like Mockito, mocks don’t just return predefined values; they also track method calls and arguments, enabling us to verify interactions.
Why Use Mocks?
Mocks come in handy when:
- Dependencies aren't available or ready for testing.
- You need to ensure a method was called with specific arguments.
- You want fast, isolated unit tests without external services.
Using Mockito
You can use Mockito to simplify mocking with two main statements:
- Given - Defines the mock's behavior
- Verify - Checks if the method was called as expected
With Mokito, you don't need to write separate stub classes; mocks are declared and configured directly within unit tests. This results in cleaner, and more efficient tests.
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