2.1 Automatically Testing Software

Last updated on 2024-12-06 | Edit this page

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Overview

Questions

  • Does the code we develop work the way it should do?
  • Can we (and others) verify these assertions for themselves?
  • To what extent are we confident of the accuracy of results that are generated by code and appear in publications?

Objectives

  • Explain the reasons why testing is important
  • Describe the three main types of tests and what each are used for
  • Implement and run unit tests to verify the correct behaviour of program functions

Introduction

Being able to demonstrate that a process generates the right results is important in any field of research, whether it is software generating those results or not. So when writing software we need to ask ourselves some key questions:

  • Does the code we develop work the way it should do?
  • Can we (and others) verify these assertions for themselves?
  • Perhaps most importantly, to what extent are we confident of the accuracy of results that software produces?

If we are unable to demonstrate that our software fulfills these criteria, why would anyone use it? Having well-defined tests for our software is useful for this, but manually testing software can prove an expensive process.

Automation can help, and automation where possible is a good thing - it enables us to define a potentially complex process in a repeatable way that is far less prone to error than manual approaches. Once defined, automation can also save us a lot of effort, particularly in the long run. In this episode we will look into techniques of automated testing to improve the predictability of a software change, make development more productive, and help us produce code that works as expected and produces desired results.

What Is Software Testing?

For the sake of argument, if each line we write has a 99% chance of being right, then a 70-line program will be wrong more than half the time. We need to do better than that, which means we need to test our software to catch these mistakes.

We can and should extensively test our software manually, and manual testing is well-suited to testing aspects such as graphical user interfaces and reconciling visual outputs against inputs. However, even with a good test plan, manual testing is very time consuming and prone to error. Another style of testing is automated testing, where we write code that tests the functions of our software. Since computers are very good and efficient at automating repetitive tasks, we should take advantage of this wherever possible.

There are three main types of automated tests:

  • Unit tests are tests for fairly small and specific units of functionality, e.g. determining that a particular function returns output as expected given specific inputs.
  • Functional or integration tests work at a higher level, and test functional paths through your code, e.g. given some specific inputs, a set of interconnected functions across a number of modules (or the entire code) produce the expected result. These are particularly useful for exposing faults in how functional units interact.
  • Regression tests make sure that your program’s output hasn’t changed, for example after making changes your code to add new functionality or fix a bug.

For the purposes of this course, we will focus on unit tests. But the principles and practices we wll talk about can be built on and applied to the other types of tests too.

Set Up a New Feature Branch for Writing Tests

We are going to look at how to run some existing tests and also write some new ones, so let us ensure we are initially on our develop branch. We will create a new feature branch called test-suite off the develop branch - a common term we use to refer to sets of tests - that we will use for our test writing work:

BASH 

$ git switch develop
$ git switch -c test-suite

Good practice is to write our tests around the same time we write our code on a feature branch. But since the code already exists, we are creating a feature branch for just these extra tests. Git branches are designed to be lightweight, and where necessary, transient, and use of branches for even small bits of work is encouraged.

Later on, once we have finished writing these tests and are convinced they work properly, we will merge our test-suite branch back into develop. Once bigger code changes are completed, merged to develop from various feature branches and tested together with existing code - which of course may also have been changed by other developers in the meantime - we will merge all of the work into main.

Inflammation Data Analysis

Let us go back to our patient inflammation software project. Recall that it is based on a clinical trial of inflammation in patients who have been given a new treatment for arthritis. There are a number of datasets in the data directory recording inflammation information in patients (each file representing a different trial), and are each stored in comma-separated values (CSV) format: each row holds information for a single patient, and the columns represent successive days when inflammation was measured in patients.

Let us take a quick look at the data now from within the Python command line console. Change directory to the repository root (which should be in your home directory ~/python-intermediate-inflammation), ensure you have your virtual environment activated in your command line terminal (particularly if opening a new one), and then start the Python console by invoking the Python interpreter without any parameters, e.g.:

BASH 

$ cd ~/python-intermediate-inflammation
$ source venv/bin/activate
$ python3

The last command will start the Python console within your shell, which enables us to execute Python commands interactively. Inside the console enter the following:

PYTHON 

import numpy as np
data = np.loadtxt(fname='data/inflammation-01.csv', delimiter=',')
data.shape

OUTPUT 

(60, 40)

The data in this case is two-dimensional - it has 60 rows (one for each patient) and 40 columns (one for each day). Each cell in the data represents an inflammation reading on a given day for a patient.

Our patient inflammation application has a number of statistical functions held in inflammation/models.py: daily_mean(), daily_max() and daily_min(), for calculating the mean average, the maximum, and the minimum values for a given number of rows in our data. For example, the daily_mean() function looks like this:

PYTHON 

def daily_mean(data):
    """Calculate the daily mean of a 2D inflammation data array for each day.

    :param data: A 2D data array with inflammation data (each row contains measurements for a single patient across all days).
    :returns: An array of mean values of measurements for each day.
    """
    return np.mean(data, axis=0)

Here, we use NumPy’s np.mean() function to calculate the mean vertically across the data (denoted by axis=0), which is then returned from the function. So, if data was a NumPy array of three rows like…

PYTHON 

[[1, 2],
 [3, 4],
 [5, 6]]

…the function would return a 1D NumPy array of [3, 4] - each value representing the mean of each column (which are, coincidentally, the same values as the second row in the above data array).

To show this working with our patient data, we can use the function like this, passing the first four patient rows to the function in the Python console:

PYTHON 

from inflammation.models import daily_mean

daily_mean(data[0:4])

Note we use a different form of import here - only importing the daily_mean function from our models instead of everything. This also has the effect that we can refer to the function using only its name, without needing to include the module name too (i.e. inflammation.models.daily_mean()).

The above code will return the mean inflammation for each day column across the first four patients (as a 1D NumPy array of shape (40, 0)):

OUTPUT 

array([ 0.  ,  0.5 ,  1.5 ,  1.75,  2.5 ,  1.75,  3.75,  3.  ,  5.25,
        6.25,  7.  ,  7.  ,  7.  ,  8.  ,  5.75,  7.75,  8.5 , 11.  ,
        9.75, 10.25, 15.  ,  8.75,  9.75, 10.  ,  8.  , 10.25,  8.  ,
        5.5 ,  8.  ,  6.  ,  5.  ,  4.75,  4.75,  4.  ,  3.25,  4.  ,
        1.75,  2.25,  0.75,  0.75])

The other statistical functions are similar. Note that in real situations functions we write are often likely to be more complicated than these, but simplicity here allows us to reason about what’s happening - and what we need to test - more easily.

Let us now look into how we can test each of our application’s statistical functions to ensure they are functioning correctly.

Writing Tests to Verify Correct Behaviour

One Way to Do It

One way to test our functions would be to write a series of checks or tests, each executing a function we want to test with known inputs against known valid results, and throw an error if we encounter a result that is incorrect. So, referring back to our simple daily_mean() example above, we could use [[1, 2], [3, 4], [5, 6]] as an input to that function and check whether the result equals [3, 4]:

PYTHON 

import numpy.testing as npt

test_input = np.array([[1, 2], [3, 4], [5, 6]])
test_result = np.array([3, 4])
npt.assert_array_equal(daily_mean(test_input), test_result)

So we use the assert_array_equal() function - part of NumPy’s testing library - to test that our calculated result is the same as our expected result. This function explicitly checks the array’s shape and elements are the same, and throws an AssertionError if they are not. In particular, note that we cannot just use == or other Python equality methods, since these will not work properly with NumPy arrays in all cases.

We could then add to this with other tests that use and test against other values, and end up with something like:

PYTHON 

test_input = np.array([[2, 0], [4, 0]])
test_result = np.array([2, 0])
npt.assert_array_equal(daily_mean(test_input), test_result)

test_input = np.array([[0, 0], [0, 0], [0, 0]])
test_result = np.array([0, 0])
npt.assert_array_equal(daily_mean(test_input), test_result)

test_input = np.array([[1, 2], [3, 4], [5, 6]])
test_result = np.array([3, 4])
npt.assert_array_equal(daily_mean(test_input), test_result)

However, if we were to enter these in this order, we will find we get the following after the first test:

OUTPUT 

...
AssertionError:
Arrays are not equal

Mismatched elements: 1 / 2 (50%)
Max absolute difference: 1.
Max relative difference: 0.5
 x: array([3., 0.])
 y: array([2, 0])

This tells us that one element between our generated and expected arrays does not match, and shows us the different arrays.

We could put these tests in a separate script to automate the running of these tests. But a Python script halts at the first failed assertion, so the second and third tests aren’t run at all. It would be more helpful if we could get data from all of our tests every time they are run, since the more information we have, the faster we are likely to be able to track down bugs. It would also be helpful to have some kind of summary report: if our set of tests - known as a test suite - includes thirty or forty tests (as it well might for a complex function or library that’s widely used), we would like to know how many passed or failed.

Going back to our failed first test, what was the issue? As it turns out, the test itself was incorrect, and should have read:

PYTHON 

test_input = np.array([[2, 0], [4, 0]])
test_result = np.array([3, 0])
npt.assert_array_equal(daily_mean(test_input), test_result)

Which highlights an important point: as well as making sure our code is returning correct answers, we also need to ensure the tests themselves are also correct. Otherwise, we may go on to fix our code only to return an incorrect result that appears to be correct. So a good rule is to make tests simple enough to understand so we can reason about both the correctness of our tests as well as our code. Otherwise, our tests hold little value.

Using a Testing Framework

Keeping these things in mind, here’s a different approach that builds on the ideas we have seen so far but uses a unit testing framework. In such a framework we define our tests we want to run as functions, and the framework automatically runs each of these functions in turn, summarising the outputs. And unlike our previous approach, it will run every test regardless of any encountered test failures.

Most people do not enjoy writing tests, so if we want them to actually do it, it must be easy to:

  • Add or change tests,
  • Understand the tests that have already been written,
  • Run those tests, and
  • Understand those tests’ results

Test results must also be reliable. If a testing tool says that code is working when it is not, or reports problems when there actually aren’t any, people will lose faith in it and stop using it.

Look at tests/test_models.py:

PYTHON 

"""Tests for statistics functions within the Model layer."""

import numpy as np
import numpy.testing as npt

from inflammation.models import daily_mean

def test_daily_mean_zeros():
    """Test that mean function works for an array of zeros."""

    test_input = np.array([[0, 0],
                           [0, 0],
                           [0, 0]])
    test_result = np.array([0, 0])

    # Need to use NumPy testing functions to compare arrays
    npt.assert_array_equal(daily_mean(test_input), test_result)


def test_daily_mean_integers():
    """Test that mean function works for an array of positive integers."""

    test_input = np.array([[1, 2],
                           [3, 4],
                           [5, 6]])
    test_result = np.array([3, 4])

    # Need to use NumPy testing functions to compare arrays
    npt.assert_array_equal(daily_mean(test_input), test_result)
...

Here, although we have specified two of our previous manual tests as separate functions, they run the same assertions. Each of these test functions, in a general sense, are called test cases - these are a specification of:

  • Inputs, e.g. the test_input NumPy array
  • Execution conditions - what we need to do to set up the testing environment to run our test, e.g. importing the daily_mean() function so we can use it. Note that for clarity of testing environment, we only import the necessary library function we want to test within each test function
  • Testing procedure, e.g. running daily_mean() with our test_input array and using assert_array_equal() to test its validity
  • Expected outputs, e.g. our test_result NumPy array that we test against

Also, we are defining each of these things for a test case we can run independently that requires no manual intervention.

Going back to our list of requirements, how easy is it to run these tests? We can do this using a Python package called pytest. Pytest is a testing framework that allows you to write test cases using Python. You can use it to test things like Python functions, database operations, or even things like service APIs - essentially anything that has inputs and expected outputs. We will be using Pytest to write unit tests, but what you learn can scale to more complex functional testing for applications or libraries.

What About Unit Testing Frameworks in Python and Other Languages?

Other unit testing frameworks exist for Python, including Nose2 and Unittest, with Unittest supplied as part of the standard Python library. It is also worth noting that Pytest supports tests written for Unittest, a useful feature if you wish to prioritise use of the standard library initially, but retain the option to move Pytest in the future.

The unit testing approach can be translated to (and is supported within) other languages as well, e.g. pFUnit for Fortran, JUnit for Java (the original unit testing framework), Catch or gtest for C++, etc.

Why Use pytest over unittest?

We could alternatively use another Python unit test framework, unittest, which has the advantage of being installed by default as part of Python. This is certainly a solid and established option, however pytest has many distinct advantages, particularly for learning, including:

  • unittest requires additional knowledge of object-oriented frameworks (covered later in the course) to write unit tests, whereas in pytest these are written in simpler functions so is easier to learn
  • Being written using simpler functions, pytest’s scripts are more concise and contain less boilerplate, and thus are easier to read
  • pytest output, particularly in regard to test failure output, is generally considered more helpful and readable
  • pytest has a vast ecosystem of plugins available if ever you need additional testing functionality
  • unittest-style unit tests can be run from pytest out of the box!

A common challenge, particularly at the intermediate level, is the selection of a suitable tool from many alternatives for a given task. Once you have become accustomed to object-oriented programming you may find unittest a better fit for a particular project or team, so you may want to revisit it at a later date.

Installing Pytest

If you have already installed pytest package in your virtual environment, you can skip this step. Otherwise, as we have seen, we have a couple of options for installing external libraries:

  1. via PyCharm (see “Adding an External Library” section in “Integrated Software Development Environments” episode), or
  2. via the command line (see “Installing External Libraries in an Environment With pip” section in “Virtual Environments For Software Development” episode).

To do it via the command line - exit the Python console first (either with Ctrl-D or by typing exit()), then do:

BASH 

$ python3 -m pip install pytest

Whether we do this via PyCharm or the command line, the results are exactly the same: our virtual environment will now have the pytest package installed for use.

Running Tests

Now we can run these tests using pytest:

BASH 

$ python3 -m pytest tests/test_models.py

Here, we use -m flag of the python3 command to invoke the pytest module, and specify the tests/test_models.py file to run the tests in that file explicitly.

Why Run Pytest Using python3 -m pytest and Not pytest?

pytest is another Python module that can be run via its own command but this is a good example why invoking Python modules via python3 -m may be better (recall the explanation of Python interpreter’s -m flag). Had we used pytest tests/test_models.py command directly, this would have led to a “ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘inflammation’” error. This is because pytest command (unlike python3 -m pytest) does not add the current directory to its list of directories to search for modules, hence the inflammation subdirectory’s contents are not being ‘seen’ by pytest causing the ModuleNotFoundError. There are ways to work around this problem but python3 -m pytest ensures it does not happen in the first place.

OUTPUT 

============================================== test session starts =================================
platform darwin -- Python 3.11.4, pytest-7.4.3, pluggy-1.3.0
rootdir: /Users/alex/work/SSI/training/lessons/python-intermediate-inflammation
plugins: anyio-4.0.0
collected 2 items

tests/test_models.py ..                                                                       [100%]

=============================================== 2 passed in 0.79s ==================================

Pytest looks for functions whose names also start with the letters ‘test_’ and runs each one. Notice the .. after our test script:

  • If the function completes without an assertion being triggered, we count the test as a success (indicated as .).
  • If an assertion fails, or we encounter an error, we count the test as a failure (indicated as F). The error is included in the output so we can see what went wrong.

So if we have many tests, we essentially get a report indicating which tests succeeded or failed. Going back to our list of requirements (the bullet points under Using a Testing Framework section), do we think these results are easy to understand?

Exercise: Write Some Unit Tests

We already have a couple of test cases in test/test_models.py that test the daily_mean() function. Looking at inflammation/models.py, write at least two new test cases that test the daily_max() and daily_min() functions, adding them to test/test_models.py. Here are some hints:

  • You could choose to format your functions very similarly to daily_mean(), defining test input and expected result arrays followed by the equality assertion.
  • Try to choose cases that are suitably different, and remember that these functions take a 2D array and return a 1D array with each element the result of analysing each column of the data.

Once added, run all the tests again with python -m pytest tests/test_models.py, and you should also see your new tests pass.

PYTHON 

from inflammation.models import daily_max, daily_mean, daily_min
...
def test_daily_max():
    """Test that max function works for an array of positive integers."""

    test_input = np.array([[4, 2, 5],
                           [1, 6, 2],
                           [4, 1, 9]])
    test_result = np.array([4, 6, 9])

    npt.assert_array_equal(daily_max(test_input), test_result)


def test_daily_min():
    """Test that min function works for an array of positive and negative integers."""

    test_input = np.array([[ 4, -2, 5],
                           [ 1, -6, 2],
                           [-4, -1, 9]])
    test_result = np.array([-4, -6, 2])

    npt.assert_array_equal(daily_min(test_input), test_result)
...

The big advantage is that as our code develops we can update our test cases and commit them back, ensuring that ourselves (and others) always have a set of tests to verify our code at each step of development. This way, when we implement a new feature, we can check a) that the feature works using a test we write for it, and b) that the development of the new feature does not break any existing functionality.

What About Testing for Errors?

There are some cases where seeing an error is actually the correct behaviour, and Python allows us to test for exceptions. Add this test in tests/test_models.py:

PYTHON 

import pytest
from inflammation.models import daily_min
...
def test_daily_min_string():
    """Test for TypeError when passing strings"""

    with pytest.raises(TypeError):
        error_expected = daily_min([['Hello', 'there'], ['General', 'Kenobi']])

Note that you need to import the pytest library at the top of our test_models.py file with import pytest so that we can use pytest’s raises() function.

Run all your tests as before.

Since we have installed pytest to our environment, we should also regenerate our requirements.txt:

BASH 

$ python3 -m pip freeze > requirements.txt

Finally, let us commit our new test_models.py file, requirements.txt file, and test cases to our test-suite branch, and push this new branch and all its commits to GitHub:

BASH 

$ git add requirements.txt tests/test_models.py
$ git commit -m "Add initial test cases for daily_max() and daily_min()"
$ git push -u origin test-suite

Why Should We Test Invalid Input Data?

Testing the behaviour of inputs, both valid and invalid, is a really good idea and is known as data validation. Even if you are developing command line software that cannot be exploited by malicious data entry, testing behaviour against invalid inputs prevents generation of erroneous results that could lead to serious misinterpretation (as well as saving time and compute cycles which may be expensive for longer-running applications). It is generally best not to assume your user’s inputs will always be rational.

Key Points

  • The three main types of automated tests are unit tests, functional tests and regression tests.
  • We can write unit tests to verify that functions generate expected output given a set of specific inputs.
  • It should be easy to add or change tests, understand and run them, and understand their results.
  • We can use a unit testing framework like Pytest to structure and simplify the writing of tests in Python.
  • We should test for expected errors in our code.
  • Testing program behaviour against both valid and invalid inputs is important and is known as data validation.