ChickenTest

It can be quite hard to write good test cases for some algorithms, while it is easy to check whether the output is correct for the given input. For this reason ChickenTest can generate random inputs for tests and adds more advanced assertions, to allow for better testing of the aforementioned type of algorithms.

Features

Randomized Test Input

The main feature of ChickenTest are the randomized tests. A test case can ask for a random value in its parameters and it if there is a Generator available for that type it will be filled with a random value.

@ExtendWith(ChickenTestExtension.class)
public class DivisionTest {

  @RepeatedTest(100)
  public void divide(@IntRange(min = -1000, max = 1000) int value) {
    if (value % 2 == 0) {
      assertEquals(2 * value / 2, value);
    }
  }
}

There are built-in Generators, but you can also create your own. You can do this by implementing the Generator interface, adding the GeneratorDescription annotation. If the Generator has a public constructor with only a ParameterContext as an argument, it is possible to feed it to the GeneratorScanner.

@GeneratorDescription(Custom.class)
public class CustomGenerator implements Generator<Custom> {

  public VertexGenerator(ParameterContext parameterContext) {
    
  }

  @Override
  public Custom generate() {
    return new Custom();
  }
}

@ExtendWith(ChickenTestExtension.class)
public class CustomTest {

  @BeforeAll
  public static void beforeAll(GeneratorScanner generatorScanner) {
    generatorScanner.addGenerator(CustomGenerator.class);
  }
}

Assertions on relations

With random examples, it is common that you want to express relations between certain assertions. For example, in the DivisionTest above, there is a special if statement to make sure that only the even numbers are checked.

For this reason, ChickenTest also comes with assertions on relations. The DivisionTest could for example also be written as:

@ExtendWith(ChickenTestExtension.class)
public class DivisionTest {

  @RepeatedTest(100)
  public void divide(@IntRange(min = -1000, max = 1000) int value) {
    assertRelation(() -> assertEquals(0, value % 2))
        .implies(() -> assertEquals(value, 2 * value / 2)).evaluate();
  }
}

For the DivisionTest, this is of course just another way of writing the if statement, but in other cases, it might be necessary. Consider for example the case where the provided input is either prime or composite. In this case we are looking for a way to verify that exactly one of those things holds. We do this by using the exclusiveOr relation. For example:

@ExtendWith(ChickenTestExtension.class)
public class PrimeTest {

  @RepeatedTest(100)
  public void divide(@IntRange(min = 2) int value) {
    assertRelation(() -> assertTrue(isPrime(value)))
        .exclusiveOr(() -> assertTrue(isComposite(value))).evaluate();
  }
}

Examples

Custom Generator

For an example of a Custom Generator, you can go to the Depth-First Search example. In this example both an iterative and recursive approach are run on a randomly generated graph. Their output is then compared.

You can find the Depth-First Search example here.

Relation Assertion

For an example of how to use the relation assertion, you can go to the Modular Multiplicative Inverse example. In this example an exclusive or test is used to test whether the calculated modular multiplicative inverse (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_multiplicative_inverse) is correct.

You can find the Modular Multiplicative Inverse example here.

Prerequisites

To use ChickenTest, there are only three things you need in your project:

• Java 17 or greater
• Maven
• JUnit 5