This topic introduces the basic concepts of unit testing and how to maintain legacy code, helping developers comprehensively understand and efficiently use unit testing.
Why perform unit testing
Unit testing is an essential part of the software development process. It verifies the correctness of the smallest testable units of code (such as functions, methods, or classes) to ensure code maintains high quality and stability during development, maintenance, and refactoring. Unit testing provides multiple benefits including improved code quality, increased development efficiency, facilitated refactoring and maintenance, and enhanced team collaboration.
Principles of unit testing
Good unit tests should follow these principles:
Automated (A): Unit tests should be automatically executed to quickly confirm that newly added code does not break existing functionality when code changes occur.
Independent (I): Each unit test should be independent and not rely on the execution order or results of other tests.
Repeatable (R): Good unit tests should produce the same results under the same conditions each time they run.
In addition, good unit tests must have clear assertions, fast execution speed, thorough boundary testing, and high coverage. Only unit tests that meet these conditions are considered good unit tests and are crucial for ensuring code quality. For more information, see Unit testing practices.
Maintain legacy code
Legacy code refers to old code retained in software systems for historical reasons. This code typically depends on outdated technology stacks, unsupported operating systems or software libraries, or code fragments kept for compatibility with older versions. Legacy code usually lacks documentation and maintenance, and does not follow modern development practices (such as unit testing and code reviews).
Lingma advantages for handling legacy code
Quick understanding of project structure: Through the
@workspacefeature, developers can quickly understand the structure and purpose of the entire project.Efficient unit test generation: For legacy code, Lingma can quickly generate unit test cases. By selecting the code snippet that needs testing, you can use Lingma to generate corresponding unit tests. This greatly reduces the time and effort required to write unit tests, ensuring that legacy code maintains high quality during modification and refactoring.
Automated interface testing: For coordination code, Lingma can generate interface test cases that cover complex dependencies. Developers can quickly master and understand the testing framework, generate automated test cases, and ensure code correctness in various business scenarios.
Support for multiple testing frameworks: Lingma supports various unit testing frameworks (such as JUnit and Mockito), allowing developers to choose appropriate testing frameworks based on project requirements. Lingma also supports adding additional information when generating test cases, such as using specific mock libraries, to meet the requirements of complex testing scenarios.
For more information, see Maintain legacy code.