From: Matt Armstrong <matt@...>
Date: 2003-02-13T08:41:34+09:00
Subject: Re: Unit Testing Private Methods

Travis Whitton <whitton@atlantic.net> writes:

> It seems that in order to be able to unit test a method it has to be
> publicly accessible. Is there a way to use test/unit to test private methods
> and instance variables?

You can use instance_eval to subvert "private."  Though when I run
into this, I usually skip testing them.  After all, the private
methods do their job properly if all the public methods that use them
pass their tests.

class MyClass
  def private_method
    "private"
  end
  private :private_method
end

if $0 == __FILE__
  require 'test/unit'
  class TestMyClass < Test::Unit::TestCase
    def setup
      @instance = MyClass.new
    end
    def test_private_method
      assert_equal("private", @instance.instance_eval { private_method })
    end
  end
end

-- 
matt