Exception Handling

Definition:

• This smell occurs when a test method explicitly a passing or failing of a test method is dependent on the production method throwing an exception. Developers should utilize JUnit’s exception handling to automatically pass/fail the test instead of writing custom exception handling code or throwing an exception.

Code Example:

@Test
public void realCase() {
    Point p34 = new Point("34", 556506.667, 172513.91, 620.34, true);
    Point p45 = new Point("45", 556495.16, 172493.912, 623.37, true);
    Point p47 = new Point("47", 556612.21, 172489.274, 0.0, true);
    Abriss a = new Abriss(p34, false);
    a.removeDAO(CalculationsDataSource.getInstance());
    a.getMeasures().add(new Measure(p45, 0.0, 91.6892, 23.277, 1.63));
    a.getMeasures().add(new Measure(p47, 281.3521, 100.0471, 108.384, 1.63));

    try {
        a.compute();
    } catch (CalculationException e) {
        Assert.fail(e.getMessage());
    }

    // test intermediate values with point 45
    Assert.assertEquals("233.2405",
        this.df4.format(a.getResults().get(0).getUnknownOrientation()));
    Assert.assertEquals("233.2435",
        this.df4.format(a.getResults().get(0).getOrientedDirection()));
    Assert.assertEquals("-0.1", this.df1.format(
        a.getResults().get(0).getErrTrans()));

    // test intermediate values with point 47
    Assert.assertEquals("233.2466",
        this.df4.format(a.getResults().get(1).getUnknownOrientation()));
    Assert.assertEquals("114.5956",
        this.df4.format(a.getResults().get(1).getOrientedDirection()));
    Assert.assertEquals("0.5", this.df1.format(
        a.getResults().get(1).getErrTrans()));

    // test final results
    Assert.assertEquals("233.2435", this.df4.format(a.getMean()));
    Assert.assertEquals("43", this.df0.format(a.getMSE()));
    Assert.assertEquals("30", this.df0.format(a.getMeanErrComp()));
}

References:

Quality attributes

• - Code Example

• - Cause and Effect

• - Frequency

• - Refactoring

• An Exploratory Study on the Refactoring of Unit Test Files in Android Applications

• Automatic Identification of High-Impact Bug Report by Product and Test Code Quality

• Automatic generation of smell-free unit tests

• Characterizing High-Quality Test Methods: A First Empirical Study

• Handling Test Smells in Python: Results from a Mixed-Method Study

• Investigating Test Smells in JavaScript Test Code

• On the Distribution of “Simple Stupid Bugs” in Unit Test Files: An Exploratory Study

• On the diffusion of test smells and their relationship with test code quality of Java projects

• On the distribution of test smells in open source Android applications: an exploratory study

• On the influence of Test Smells on Test Coverage

• On the test smells detection: an empirical study on the jnose test accuracy

• PyNose: A Test Smell Detector For Python

• Pytest-Smell: a smell detection tool for Python unit tests

• Refactoring Test Smells With JUnit 5: Why Should Developers Keep Up-to-Date?

• Refactoring Test Smells: A Perspective from Open-Source Developers

• Software Unit Test Smells

• TEMPY: Test Smell Detector for Python

• Test Smell Detection Tools: A Systematic Mapping Study

• TestAXE: Automatically Refactoring Test Smells Using JUnit 5 Features

• The secret life of test smells-an empirical study on test smell evolution and maintenance

• Understanding Testability and Test Smells

• Understanding practitioners’ strategies to handle test smells: a multi-method study

• What the Smell? An Empirical Investigation on the Distribution and Severity of Test Smells in Open Source Android Applications

• tsDetect: an open source test smells detection tool