In this example, we shall show you to test void methods. In JUnit Test Void Method example we will learn how we can test the void methods using the JUnit. In our previous tutorials, we have learned a lot about the JUnit and its various techniques about testing. But in ourprevious tutorials we haven’t seen how we can testvoid methods.

You can read aboutJUnit inTesting with JUnit book.
 
 
 
 
 

 
In this example, we will see how we can cover examples of some of the scenarios where we need to test the void methods. We will be usingMaven as our build and dependency tool for this example.

1. Introduction

JUnit testing framework will help you test all your methods. It is a major tool in the arsenal of Java developers. We can test all type of methods irrespective of the method returning any value or not.

In ourprevious tutorials, we have seen many ways to test the methods those returning the value. In this examplewe will test those methods that don’t return any value.

Above line is from JUnit docs and tells everything about the methods.

2. Technologies Used

We will be using the following technologies in our example.

• Java 1.8: Language to write our example. We will be using the latest Java version i.e. 1.8
• JUnit 4.12: testing framework for unit testing.
• Maven: build and dependency tool. It will be used to fetch the JUnit jar from maven repository.
• Eclipse: IDE for writing code. You can use any IDE of your choice as it supports Maven integration

3. Project Setup

Let’s begin with creating our example.

Open eclipse. ClickFile -> New -> Maven Project.See below screen for modifications and click onNext button.

On next screen fill in all the details as shown below and click on theFinish button.

With this, we are ready with the blank Maven project. At this point, our example is an empty Maven project with a blank skeleton. Let’s start with our example from here. We need to write some initial steps before start coding.

4. JUnit Test Void Method Example

First of all we need to create the following lines inpom.xml file. These lines will fetch the JUnit dependency.
It also tells Maven to use Java 1.8 for compiling our code.

pom.xml

    <dependencies>        <dependency>            <groupId>junit</groupId>            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>            <version>4.12</version>        </dependency>    </dependencies>    <properties>        <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>        <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>    </properties>

4.1 Java Classes

Now start by writing a java class that will prepare the core for our example. We will create a simple class which will be used later in this example for testing.

MyList.java

package junittestvoidmethod;import java.util.ArrayList;import java.util.List;import java.util.NoSuchElementException;public class MyList {    private List lstFruits = new ArrayList<>();    public void add(String fruit) {        lstFruits.add(fruit);    }    public void remove(String fruit) {        if (!lstFruits.contains(fruit)) {            throw new NoSuchElementException();        }        lstFruits.remove(fruit);    }    public int size() {        return lstFruits.size();    }    public void removeAll() {        lstFruits.clear();    }}

As you see in this class we have some void methods that need to be tested. This is a simple example explaining the behavior of the void methods. In this example, we are imitating the behavior ofList interface for adding and removing of an element.

We will simply create aList and then add and remove from that, but with help of our class.
Atline no 17, we are also throwing theNoSuchElementException(). We will also see how we can test this exception in our example. We have covered it here as it is thrown by thevoid method.

4.2 JUnit Test Class

Now, we will create a test class that will help and test ourMyList class above. We will cover each test case in details. First of all lets see how our class will look like.

Want to be a JUnit Master ?

Subscribe to our newsletter and download theJUnitProgramming Cookbookright now!

In order to help you master unit testing with JUnit, we have compiled a kick-ass guide with all the major JUnit features and use cases! Besides studying them online you may download the eBook in PDF format!

Download NOW!

Thank you!

We will contact you soon.

MyListTest.java

package junittestvoidmethod;import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;import java.util.NoSuchElementException;import org.junit.After;import org.junit.Before;import org.junit.Test;public class MyListTest {    private MyList lstTest = new MyList();    @Before    public void init() {        lstTest.add("Apple");        lstTest.add("Orange");        lstTest.add("Grapes");    }    @Test    public void testSize() {        assertEquals("Checking size of List", 3, lstTest.size());    }    @Test    public void testAdd() {        lstTest.add("Banana");        assertEquals("Adding 1 more fruit to list", 4, lstTest.size());    }    @Test    public void testRemove() {        lstTest.remove("Orange");        assertEquals("Removing 1 fruit from list", 2, lstTest.size());    }    @Test(expected = NoSuchElementException.class)    public void testRemoveException() {        lstTest.remove("Kiwi");        assertEquals("Removing 1 fruit from list", 2, lstTest.size());    }    @After    public void destroy() {        lstTest.removeAll();    }}

4.3 Code Explained

Let’s examine each method in details and how we are testing it.

• init() is used to initialize theList of our class. We are adding some default elements, in our case fruits.
• testSize() is used to check size of the list.
• testAdd() is avoid method. We are simply adding the new element to the existing list. This method is not returning any value. So the point is how we can test it? And the answer to this question is simple as that.
  We simply check the size of the list. If it is increased by one (as we added one element) then we can easily check the size.
  We have used theassertEquals here(see line no 30)
• testRemove() is used to check the removal of an element from list. in this case, the size of the list should be decreased. Same way as intestAdd(), here also we are usingassertEquals for testing.
• testRemoveException() is used to test the exception thrown by the method. See how we have captured the exception. In this method we are removing an element which is not present in the list. In such case this method will thrown an exception. If we do not catch that exception, the test case will fail eventually.
  So to make our test case pass we have to catch it using the@Test(expected = NoSuchElementException.class). It is a very clean way of catching exception and testing it.
• destroy() is used to remove all elements that we have added to our collection. It is to be noted that@Before and@After will run before and after every test case.

Output
We can analyze the output of our example in the JUnit tab of eclipse.

5. Conclusion

In this example, we have learned that how we can JUnit Test Void Method. We have also learned that how to catch the exception if it is thrown by avoid method. Actually testing mechanism is same for all methods, but void methods are special as we don’t have any returning value to be matched for testing.

But as we have previously said that the method may not be returning anything but it may be altering the behaviour of our program somewhere. So we simply test that case and then it is easy to implement it.

6. Download the Eclipse Project

This is a JUnit Test Void Method example.

Do you want to know how to develop your skillset to become aJava Rockstar?

Subscribe to our newsletter to start Rockingright now!

To get you started we give you our best selling eBooks forFREE!

1. JPA Mini Book

2. JVM Troubleshooting Guide

3. JUnit Tutorial for Unit Testing

4. Java Annotations Tutorial

5. Java Interview Questions

6. Spring Interview Questions

7. Android UI Design

and many more ....

I agree to theTerms andPrivacy Policy

Sign up

Thank you!

We will contact you soon.