General Fixture

Definition:

Occurs when a test case fixture is too general and the test methods only access part of it. A test setup/fixture method that initializes fields that are not accessed by test methods indicates that the fixture is too generalized. A drawback of it being too general is that unnecessary work is being done when a test method is run.

Also Known As:

Badly Used Fixture

Code Example:

public void testGetFlightsByFromAirport_OneOutboundFlight() throws Exception {
      setupStandardAirportsAndFlights();
      FlightDto outboundFlight = findOneOutboundFlight();
      // Exercise System
      List flightsAtOrigin = facade.getFlightsByOriginAirport(
                    outboundFlight.getOriginAirportId());
      // Verify Outcome
      assertOnly1FlightInDtoList( "Flights at origin", outboundFlight,
                                  flightsAtOrigin);
  }

  public void testGetFlightsByFromAirport_TwoOutboundFlights() throws Exception {
      setupStandardAirportsAndFlights();
      FlightDto[] outboundFlights = findTwoOutboundFlightsFromOneAirport();
      // Exercise System
      List flightsAtOrigin = facade.getFlightsByOriginAirport(
                    outboundFlights[0].getOriginAirportId());
      // Verify Outcome
      assertExactly2FlightsInDtoList( "Flights at origin", outboundFlights,
                                      flightsAtOrigin);
  }
}

References:

Quality attributes

- Code Example
- Cause and Effect
- Frequency
- Refactoring