Activity 5: Testing with Assertions (Optional)

Introduction: In the previous activities, you were asked to design and implement the Card and Deck classes. Upon completion of those tasks, you were instructed to test those classes by creating objects and testing each of the class methods. In this activity, we will take a more formal approach to testing and introduce the Java assert statement. Exploration: What is the purpose of testing? Programmers make mistakes. These range from misunderstanding an algorithm or a problem specification (the most serious), to simple typing errors. The purpose of program testing is to find as many of those mistakes as possible. Lets consider some aspects of testing. Efficient and organized testing How should we test a program? Clearly, we need to run the program and see whether its behavior matches what is intended. Theres more to it than that, though. Good testing is systematic. A programmer should pick test cases not at random but in a way more likely to find errors. For example, one should choose test runs that collectively exercise all parts of a program. Code that isnt executed may contain bugs. Good testing is also programmer-efficient. Tests should be easy to run. Test cases should be chosen to be as simple as possible while still being complex enough to expose errors. Simple test cases can also make it easier to see what a program is doing wrong. For this activity, we will focus on finding two kinds of errors: Inconsistencies, where two parts of the program have different expectations about a variables value, for example; and Common typos of the brain, such as off-by-one errors and substitution of one operator for another (such as using > instead of < ). Our tests will all involve assertions, boolean expressions that should be true if the program is running correctly. We will incorporate our tests in a tester class whose main method executes the tests.

Activity 5 - 14 - Elevens Student Lab Guide Assertions in Java Our testing code will use the Java assert statement. This statement has the following form: assert booleanExpression : StringExpression; If the value of booleanExpression is true, the program continues with the next statement. If the value of booleanExpression is false, the program throws an AssertionError exception and prints StringExpression. It also prints a Stack Trace (more on that later). Here's an example using assert. Card c1 = new Card("ace", "hearts", 1); Card c2 = new Card("ace", "hearts", 1); assert c1.matches(c2) : "Duplicate cards do not match."; This code creates two new Card objects, and then checks that they contain the same information. If c1.matches(c2) returns true, then execution continues with the next statement. However, if the program has an error which results in c1.matches(c2) returning false, an AssertionError is thrown and the message "Duplicate cards do not match." is output. Assertions are disabled by default. To use them, the command-line option -ea (Enable Assertions) is used. For example, the following would run the main method in CardTester with assertions enabled: java -ea CardTester Organizing tests of the Card class We move on to test the Card class. Cards have a constructor and several methods (suit, rank, pointValue, matches, and toString). Our tests must cover all of these methods. First, we create a file named CardTester.java. This name was chosen to describe its purpose. Its main method will start by creating some Card objects that will be used to do the testing: Card c1 = new Card("ace", "hearts", 1); Card c2 = new Card("ace", "hearts", 1); Card c3 = new Card("ace", "hearts", 2); Card c4 = new Card("ace", "spades", 1); Card c5 = new Card("king", "hearts", 1); Card c6 = new Card("queen", "clubs", 3); The first two cards are identical. Cards c3, c4, and c5 each differ from c1 in only one of the instance variable values. These one difference cards will help us find copy/paste errors; for example, if the body of suit was copied from rank and pasted without change. The last card is different from the others in all of the values.

Activity 5 - 15 - Elevens Student Lab Guide We start by testing the Card accessor methods. These tests merely check, using cards with completely different information, that whats stored is what was provided in the constructor. Note the inclusion in the String message of information about which value was involved in each assertion. assert c1.rank().equals("ace") : "Wrong rank: " + c1.rank(); assert c1.suit().equals("hearts") : "Wrong suit: " + c1.suit(); assert c1.pointValue() == 1 : "Wrong point value: " + c1.pointValue(); assert c6.rank().equals("queen") : "Wrong rank: " + c6.rank(); assert c6.suit().equals("clubs") : "Wrong suit: " + c6.suit(); assert c6.pointValue() == 3: "Wrong point value : " + c6.pointValue(); Next, we test the Card method matches. Two cards match if and only if they have the same rank, suit, and point values. A likely implementation of matches will involve some comparisons and some uses of &&. Common bugs are the copy/paste error mentioned above and the substitution of || for &&. Comparing c1 to all the others should reveal these kinds of errors. assert c1.matches(c1) : "Card doesn't match itself: " + c1; assert c1.matches(c2) : "Duplicate cards aren't equal: " + c1; assert !c1.matches(c3) : "Different cards are equal: " + c1 + ", " + c3; assert !c1.matches(c4) : "Different cards are equal: " + c1 + ", " + c4; assert !c1.matches(c5) : "Different cards are equal: " + c1 + ", " + c5; assert !c1.matches(c6) : "Different cards are equal: " + c1 + ", " + c6; Finally, we test toString, again on two completely different objects. assert c1.toString().equals("ace of hearts (point value = 1)") : "Wrong toString: " + c1; assert c6.toString().equals("queen of clubs (point value = 3)") : "Wrong toString: " + c6; If all of the tests pass, we provide a message that says so: System.out.println("All tests passed!"); Systematic testing Cards didnt involve any data structures more complicated than strings. When testing a class with more complex structures, it makes sense to start small. With a Deck class, for example, it might make sense to first provide tests that use a 1-card deck, and then a 2-card deck with different cards.

Activity 5 - 16 - Elevens Student Lab Guide But, would all these tests get out of control? Just as in other programming youve done, it makes sense to split a long sequence of statements into helper methods. The result may be a smaller test program, and some of the assertion sequences might be easier to reuse. The main method in a DeckTester class might be the following: public static void main(String[] args) { test1CardDeck(); test2CardDeck(); testShuffle(); System.out.println("All tests passed!"); } Exercises: 1. The folder Activity5 Starter Code contains the four subfolders Buggy1, Buggy2, Buggy3, and Buggy4. Each of these contains a different buggy version of the Deck class. These buggy decks have been precompiled; only the Deck.class bytecode file is included. These buggy versions each contain one error caused by either moving a statement, or substituting one symbol for another, e.g., 1 for 0 or > for <. Test each of them with the DeckTester application provided in each folder: java -ea DeckTester If you are using a Windows-based system, you can just execute the provided DeckTester.bat file. Each of the four different DeckTester runs will produce an AssertionError exception, along with information about why the error occurred. For each error that occurs, write down which method or constructor of the buggy Deck class could contain the bug, and make an educated guess about the cause of the error. You might find it helpful to refer to your completed Deck class from Activity 4. Note: The Buggy1 test will produce output similar to the following: ... >java -ea DeckTester Exception in thread "main" java.lang.AssertionError: isEmpty is false for an empty deck. at DeckTester.testEmpty(DeckTester.java:98) at DeckTester.test1CardDeck(DeckTester.java:28) at DeckTester.main(DeckTester.java:12)

Activity 5 - 17 - Elevens Student Lab Guide The last three lines of output are a stack trace that tells you that the AssertionError occurred in the testEmpty method at line 98. testEmpty method was called from the test1CardDeck method at line 28. test1CardDeck method was called from the main method at line 12. Record your conclusions below: Buggy1: Constructor or Method (write method name): Describe a Possible Code Error:

______________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Buggy2: Constructor or Method (write method name): Describe a Possible Code Error:

______________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Buggy3: Constructor or Method (write method name): Describe a Possible Code Error: ______________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

Activity 5 - 18 - Elevens Student Lab Guide Buggy4: Constructor or Method (write method name): Describe a Possible Code Error: ______________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

2. Now, examine the Buggy5 folder. This folder contains a Deck.java file with multiple errors. Use DeckTester to help you find the errors. Correct each error until the Deck class has passed all of its tests. Note that you may receive a runtime error other than AssertionError when running DeckTester. If so, you may find it helpful to switch the order of 1-card deck and 2-card deck tests as follows: public static void main(String[] args) { test2CardDeck(); // order swapped test1CardDeck(); // order swapped testShuffle(); System.out.println("All