Best Practices for Unit Testing

Some of the best practices for unit testing are:

1. Using Relatable Test Name: While performing unit testing the name used for the unit test should be chosen such that it gives us a bit of clarity about the feature that is being tested. This helps in understanding the purpose of the testing. Example: Suppose you have a simple function that adds two numbers so we can give the name to the unit as an addition.
2. Isolation Unit Testing: You must ensure that the unit test is independent of the other units so that some error in the other unit does not reflect in this unit. This reflects that the behavior of the unit is tested. Example: Suppose you have two units A and B and the output of unit A is the input for unit B. Then it should not happen that function A’s failure or wrong output would affect function B as in unit testing we are only concerned with the working of function B.
3. Evaluate Boundary Conditions: It is very essential to test boundary conditions in any piece of code for its efficiency. These test cases can be seen as a ground for errors like input validation, or some other basic error in code.
4. Frequent Unit Testing: Unit testing can be done frequently during development time so that the programmers can catch defects early. It is a very good practice to test with development, which includes a continuous CI pipeline to receive rapid feedback and automate test execution.
5. Include test cases that will lead to failure: Including test cases that will result in failure or error conditions is essential to help understand the behavior of the unit correctly in error scenarios and exception handling.

Unit testing is a crucial aspect of software development, ensuring that individual components of a program function correctly. It helps developers identify and fix bugs early in the development cycle, leading to more reliable and maintainable code. Understanding the characteristics, tools, and best practices of unit testing is essential for creating high-quality software.