Unit test for the 'none' type in Python
Solution 1
All Python functions return something. If you don't specify a return value, None
is returned. So if your goal really is to make sure that something doesn't return a value, you can just say
self.assertIsNone(self.is_in('a'))
(However, this can't distinguish between a function without an explicit return value and one which does return None
.)
Solution 2
The point of a unit test is to test something that the function does. If it's not returning a value, then what is it actually doing? In this case, it doesn't appear to be doing anything, since my_list
is a local variable, but if your function actually looked something like this:
def is_in(char, my_list):
my_list.append(char)
Then you would want to test if char
is actually appended to the list. Your test would be:
def test_one(self):
my_list = []
is_in('a', my_list)
self.assertEqual(my_list, ['a'])
Since the function does not return a value, there isn't any point testing for it (unless you need make sure that it doesn't return a value).
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peppy
Updated on May 12, 2021Comments
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peppy almost 3 years
How would I go about testing for a function that does not return anything?
For example, say I have this function:
def is_in(char): my_list = [] my_list.append(char)
and then if I were to test it:
class TestIsIn(unittest.TestCase): def test_one(self): ''' Test if one character was added to the list''' self.assertEqual(self.is_in('a'), # And this is where I am lost)
I don't know what to assert the function is equal to, since there isn't any return value that I could compare it to.
Would assertIn work?