{"id":2573,"date":"2010-06-25T11:57:07","date_gmt":"2010-06-25T11:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/pick\/2010\/06\/25\/matlab-xunit-test-framework\/"},"modified":"2016-07-22T12:53:23","modified_gmt":"2016-07-22T16:53:23","slug":"matlab-xunit-test-framework","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/pick\/2010\/06\/25\/matlab-xunit-test-framework\/","title":{"rendered":"MATLAB xUnit Test Framework"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\r\nNOTE!<\/font><\/b> As of R2013a, MATLAB has a fully supported built-in unit testing framework<\/a>. If you are just getting started, please investigate it first!<\/br>
<\/br>\r\n\r\nBob<\/a>'s pick this week is MATLAB xUnit Test Framework<\/a> by Steve Eddins<\/a> and now maintained by Paul Sexton<\/a>.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nDo you use MATLAB to develop algorithms? Does your code rely on functions created by others? What kind of testing do you do?\r\nFor many users the answer may be something like this. \"I tried a problem where I knew the solution. Since the right answer\r\nwas returned, I trust it.\" For some, that may be good enough. For others, a more systematic and comprehensive approach may\r\nbe required.\r\n\r\nI know customers in some industries need to follow a strict process, and automated test suites allow a battery of test cases\r\nto be exercised. So for example when any changes need to be made, the tests can be repeated to ensure no inadvertent bugs\r\nwere introduced in your code while adding a new feature. Now think beyond your own code. Maybe you just received a new version\r\nof your favorite third party toolbox. Your boss wants you to check it out before deploying across the organization. Maybe\r\nyour software compliance or certification procedures dictate that new releases of all computing platforms, including MATLAB,\r\nmust be qualified before you can upgrade. This is where automated testing pays dividends.\r\n\r\nSteve's test harness<\/a> delivers! The detailed documentation is well organized from getting started to advanced usage. To illustrate, I used xunit<\/tt> to test one of my submissions, round2<\/a><\/tt>. The function help includes some example problems.\r\n
help round2<\/span><\/pre>\r\n
 ROUND2 rounds number to nearest multiple of arbitrary precision.\r\n    Z = ROUND2(X,Y) rounds X to nearest multiple of Y.\r\n \r\n Example 1: round PI to 2 decimal places\r\n    >> round2(pi,0.01)\r\n    ans =\r\n          3.14\r\n \r\n Example 2: round PI to 4 decimal places\r\n    >> round2(pi,1e-4)\r\n    ans =\r\n          3.1416\r\n \r\n Example 3: round PI to 8-bit fraction\r\n    >> round2(pi,2^-8)\r\n    ans =\r\n          3.1406\r\n \r\n Examples 4-6: round PI to other multiples\r\n    >> round2(pi,0.05)\r\n    ans =\r\n          3.15\r\n    >> round2(pi,2)\r\n    ans =\r\n          4\r\n    >> round2(pi,5)\r\n    ans =\r\n          5 \r\n \r\n  See also ROUND.\r\n\r\n<\/pre>\r\nExamples usually make excellent test cases. Turning them into test points was a simple matter of codifying function calls\r\nto return actual values, and providing expected values for comparison.\r\n
dbtype test_round2<\/span><\/pre>\r\n
1     function test_suite = test_round2\r\n2     initTestSuite\r\n3     \r\n4     function testExample1\r\n5     assertEqual(round2(pi,0.01),3.14)\r\n6     \r\n7     function testExample2\r\n8     assertEqual(round2(pi,1e-4),3.1416)\r\n9     \r\n10    function testExample3\r\n11    assertElementsAlmostEqual(round2(pi,2^-8),3.1406,'absolute',0.0001)\r\n12    \r\n13    function testExample4\r\n14    assertElementsAlmostEqual(round2(pi,0.05),3.15,'absolute',0.01)\r\n15    \r\n16    function testExample5\r\n17    assertEqual(round2(pi,2),4)\r\n18    \r\n19    function testExample6\r\n20    assertEqual(round2(pi,5),5)\r\n\r\n<\/pre>\r\nNote that I also specified tolerances where appropriate. Now, running this test suite is straightforward.\r\n
test_round2<\/pre>\r\n
Starting test run with 6 test cases.\r\n......\r\nPASSED in 0.010 seconds.\r\n<\/pre>\r\nBe sure to check out his blog, Steve on Image Processing<\/a> in general, and two posts in particular.\r\n
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