1<html> 2<head> 3<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> 4<title>Writing unit tests</title> 5<link rel="stylesheet" href="../boostbook.css" type="text/css"> 6<meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.79.1"> 7<link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="Boost.Test"> 8<link rel="up" href="../index.html" title="Boost.Test"> 9<link rel="prev" href="tests_organization/summary_of_the_api_for_declaring.html" title="Summary of the API for declaring and organizing tests"> 10<link rel="next" href="testing_tools/tools_assertion_severity_level.html" title="Assertion severity level"> 11</head> 12<body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"> 13<table cellpadding="2" width="100%"><tr> 14<td valign="top"><img alt="Boost C++ Libraries" width="277" height="86" src="../../../../../boost.png"></td> 15<td align="center"><a href="../../../../../index.html">Home</a></td> 16<td align="center"><a href="../../../../../libs/libraries.htm">Libraries</a></td> 17<td align="center"><a href="http://www.boost.org/users/people.html">People</a></td> 18<td align="center"><a href="http://www.boost.org/users/faq.html">FAQ</a></td> 19<td align="center"><a href="../../../../../more/index.htm">More</a></td> 20</tr></table> 21<hr> 22<div class="spirit-nav"> 23<a accesskey="p" href="tests_organization/summary_of_the_api_for_declaring.html"><img src="../../../../../doc/src/images/prev.png" alt="Prev"></a><a accesskey="u" href="../index.html"><img src="../../../../../doc/src/images/up.png" alt="Up"></a><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html"><img src="../../../../../doc/src/images/home.png" alt="Home"></a><a accesskey="n" href="testing_tools/tools_assertion_severity_level.html"><img src="../../../../../doc/src/images/next.png" alt="Next"></a> 24</div> 25<div class="section"> 26<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> 27<a name="boost_test.testing_tools"></a><a class="link" href="testing_tools.html" title="Writing unit tests">Writing unit tests</a> 28</h2></div></div></div> 29<div class="toc"><dl class="toc"> 30<dt><span class="section"><a href="testing_tools/tools_assertion_severity_level.html">Assertion 31 severity level</a></span></dt> 32<dt><span class="section"><a href="testing_tools/boost_test_universal_macro.html">BOOST_TEST: 33 universal and general purpose assertions</a></span></dt> 34<dt><span class="section"><a href="testing_tools/reports.html">Reported information</a></span></dt> 35<dt><span class="section"><a href="testing_tools/extended_comparison.html">Extended 36 comparisons support</a></span></dt> 37<dd><dl> 38<dt><span class="section"><a href="testing_tools/extended_comparison/floating_point.html">Floating 39 point comparison</a></span></dt> 40<dd><dl> 41<dt><span class="section"><a href="testing_tools/extended_comparison/floating_point/customizing_for_tolerance.html">Enabling 42 tolerance for user-defined types</a></span></dt> 43<dt><span class="section"><a href="testing_tools/extended_comparison/floating_point/floating_points_comparison_impl.html">Tolerance-based 44 comparisons</a></span></dt> 45<dt><span class="section"><a href="testing_tools/extended_comparison/floating_point/floating_points_comparison_theory.html">Theory 46 behind floating point comparisons</a></span></dt> 47</dl></dd> 48<dt><span class="section"><a href="testing_tools/extended_comparison/strings.html">Strings 49 and C-strings comparison</a></span></dt> 50<dt><span class="section"><a href="testing_tools/extended_comparison/collections.html">Collections 51 comparison</a></span></dt> 52<dt><span class="section"><a href="testing_tools/extended_comparison/bitwise.html">Bitwise 53 comparison</a></span></dt> 54</dl></dd> 55<dt><span class="section"><a href="testing_tools/exception_correctness.html">Exception 56 correctness</a></span></dt> 57<dt><span class="section"><a href="testing_tools/timeout.html">Time-out for test cases</a></span></dt> 58<dt><span class="section"><a href="testing_tools/expected_failures.html">Expected 59 failures specification</a></span></dt> 60<dt><span class="section"><a href="testing_tools/custom_predicates.html">Custom predicate 61 support</a></span></dt> 62<dt><span class="section"><a href="testing_tools/output_stream_testing.html">Output 63 streams testing tool</a></span></dt> 64<dt><span class="section"><a href="testing_tools/internal_details.html"><code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">BOOST_TEST</span></code>: details on expressions</a></span></dt> 65<dt><span class="section"><a href="testing_tools/debugging.html">Debugging the assertions</a></span></dt> 66<dt><span class="section"><a href="testing_tools/summary.html">Summary of the API 67 for writing tests</a></span></dt> 68</dl></div> 69<p> 70 Once a test case has been declared, the body of this test should be written. 71 A test case is a sequence of operations in which <span class="bold"><strong>assertions</strong></span> 72 are inserted. Those assertions evaluate <span class="emphasis"><em>statements</em></span> that 73 implement the expectation being validated, and report failures and/or information 74 in a uniform manner, depending on the <a class="link" href="utf_reference/rt_param_reference/log_level.html" title="log_level">log 75 level</a>. 76 </p> 77<p> 78 The <span class="emphasis"><em>Unit Test Framework</em></span>'s supplies a toolbox of assertions 79 to ease the creation and maintenance of test cases and provide a uniform error 80 reporting mechanism. The toolbox supplied is in most part in a form of macro 81 declarations. An (almost) unique interface to all of them implemented by the 82 macro <a class="link" href="utf_reference/testing_tool_ref/assertion_boost_test_universal_macro.html" title="BOOST_TEST"><code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">BOOST_TEST</span></code></a>. 83 </p> 84<div class="note"><table border="0" summary="Note"> 85<tr> 86<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../../../../../doc/src/images/note.png"></td> 87<th align="left">Note</th> 88</tr> 89<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><p> 90 All macros arguments are calculated once, so it's safe to pass complex expressions 91 in their place. 92 </p></td></tr> 93</table></div> 94<p> 95 All tools automatically supply an error location: a file name and a line number, 96 which can also be overridden. 97 </p> 98<div class="caution"><table border="0" summary="Caution"> 99<tr> 100<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Caution]" src="../../../../../doc/src/images/caution.png"></td> 101<th align="left">Caution</th> 102</tr> 103<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><p> 104 The testing tools are intended for unit test code rather than library or 105 production code, where throwing exceptions, using <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">assert</span><span class="special">()</span></code>, <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">boost</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">concept_check</span></code> 106 or <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">BOOST_STATIC_ASSERT</span><span class="special">()</span></code> 107 may be more suitable ways to detect and report errors. 108 </p></td></tr> 109</table></div> 110<p> 111 For a list of all supplied testing tools and usage examples, see the <a class="link" href="testing_tools/summary.html" title="Summary of the API for writing tests">summary</a> or the <a class="link" href="utf_reference/testing_tool_ref.html" title="Reference API for writing tests">reference</a>. 112 </p> 113</div> 114<table xmlns:rev="http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~gregod/boost/tools/doc/revision" width="100%"><tr> 115<td align="left"></td> 116<td align="right"><div class="copyright-footer">Copyright © 2001-2020 Boost.Test contributors<p> 117 Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying 118 file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at <a href="http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt" target="_top">http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>) 119 </p> 120</div></td> 121</tr></table> 122<hr> 123<div class="spirit-nav"> 124<a accesskey="p" href="tests_organization/summary_of_the_api_for_declaring.html"><img src="../../../../../doc/src/images/prev.png" alt="Prev"></a><a accesskey="u" href="../index.html"><img src="../../../../../doc/src/images/up.png" alt="Up"></a><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html"><img src="../../../../../doc/src/images/home.png" alt="Home"></a><a accesskey="n" href="testing_tools/tools_assertion_severity_level.html"><img src="../../../../../doc/src/images/next.png" alt="Next"></a> 125</div> 126</body> 127</html> 128
