JUnit 4 has a feature called parameterized tests. Parameterized test means to execute the test multiple time with different sets of test data. This eliminates the redundancy of the code. This helps the developers to save time by eliminating the need to copy the code multiple times. Parameterizing tests can increase code coverage and provide confidence that the code is working as expected. These are the steps that need to be followed to create a parameterized test.
- Annotate test class with @RunWith(Parameterized.class).
- Create an instance variable for each “column” of test data.
- It has a single constructor that contains the test data.
- Create a public static method annotated with @Parameters that returns a Collection of Objects (as Array) as test data set.
- Create your test case(s) using the instance variables as the source of the test data.
In a Maven project, to parameterize the tests in JUnit4, we need to add a dependency to POM.xml.
<dependency>
<groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId>
<artifactId>junit-jupiter-params</artifactId>
<version>5.8.2</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
The test case will be invoked once for each row of data.
There are multiple ways to parameterize a test. They are the following:
- Parameterized Test with Constructor
- Parameterized Test with Parameter Annotation
- Parameterized Test using CSV File
Let us see parameterized tests in action.
1. Parameterized Test with Constructor
Steps to create a Parameterized JUnit test
1. Create a parameterized test class
Annotate your test class using @runWith(Parameterized.class).
Declaring the variable ‘num1’, ‘num2’, ‘num3’ as private and type as int.
@RunWith(value = Parameterized.class)
public class ParameterizedTest {
private int num1;
private int num2;
private int num3;
2. Create a constructor that stores the test data. It stores 3 variables.
public ParameterizedTest(int num1, int num2, int num3) {
this.num1 = num1;
this.num2 = num2;
this.num3 = num3;
}
3. Create a static method that generates and returns test data.
Creating a two-dimensional array (providing input parameters for multiplication). Using the asList method, we convert the data into a List type. Since the return type of method input is the collection.
Using @Parameters annotation to create a set of input data to run our test.
@Parameterized.Parameters(name = "{index}: multiply({0}*{1}) = {2}")
public static Collection<Object[]> data() {
return Arrays.asList(new Object[][]{
{1, 1, 1},
{2, 2, 4},
{8, 2, 16},
{4, 5, 20},
{5, 5, 25}
});
}
The static method identified by @Parameters annotation returns a Collection, where each entry in the Collection will be the input data for one iteration of the test.
The complete code is shown below:
import org.junit.Test;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
import org.junit.runners.Parameterized;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Collection;
import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
@RunWith(value = Parameterized.class)
public class ParameterizedTest {
private int num1;
private int num2;
private int num3;
public ParameterizedTest(int num1, int num2, int num3) {
this.num1 = num1;
this.num2 = num2;
this.num3 = num3;
}
@Parameterized.Parameters(name = "{index}: multiply({0}*{1}) = {2}")
public static Collection<Object[]> data() {
return Arrays.asList(new Object[][]{
{1, 1, 1},
{2, 2, 4},
{8, 2, 16},
{4, 5, 20},
{5, 5, 25}
});
}
@Test
public void multiplication() {
System.out.println("The product of "+num1+" and "+num2+" is "+num3);
assertEquals((num1*num2), num3);
}
}
The output of the above program is
2. Parameterized Test with Parameter Annotation
It is also possible to inject data values directly into fields without needing a constructor using the @Parameter annotation.
import org.junit.Test;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
import org.junit.runners.Parameterized;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Collection;
import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
@RunWith(value = Parameterized.class)
public class ParameterizedTest1 {
@Parameterized.Parameter(value = 0)
public int num1;
@Parameterized.Parameter(value = 1)
public int num2;
@Parameterized.Parameter(value = 2)
public int num3;
@Parameterized.Parameters(name = "{index}: multiply({0}*{1}) = {2}")
public static Collection<Object[]> data() {
return Arrays.asList(new Object[][]{
{1, 1, 1},
{2, 2, 4},
{8, 2, 16},
{4, 5, 20},
{5, 5, 24}
});
}
@Test
public void multiplication() {
System.out.println("The product of "+num1+" and "+num2+" is "+num3);
assertEquals((num1*num2), num3);
}
}
The output of the above program is
3. Parameterized Test using CSV File
We can use an external CSV file to load the test data. This helps if the number of possible test cases is quite significant, or if test cases are frequently changed. The changes can be done without affecting the test code.
To start with, add a JUnitParams dependency to POM.xml
<dependency>
<groupId>pl.pragmatists</groupId>
<artifactId>JUnitParams</artifactId>
<version>1.1.1</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
Let’s say that we have a CSV file with test parameters as JunitParamsTestParameters.csv:
Now let’s look at how this file can be used to load test parameters in the test method:
import junitparams.JUnitParamsRunner;
import org.junit.Test;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
import junitparams.FileParameters;
import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
@RunWith(JUnitParamsRunner.class)
public class ParameterizedTest2 {
@Test
@FileParameters("src/test/resources/JunitParamsTestParameters.csv")
public void multiplication(int num1, int num2, int num3) {
System.out.println("The product of "+num1+" and "+num2+" is "+num3);
assertEquals((num1*num2), num3);
}
}
The output of the above program is
The parameterized test enables us to execute the same test over and over again using different values.
Important annotations to be used during parameterization
- @RunWith
- @Parameters
Congratulations. We are done. I hope this tutorial is helpful to you. Happy Learning!!
QA Automation Expert 