Verdant Fox
9 pytest tips and tricks to take your tests to the next level
July 12, 2021 / 34 min read / 18,011 , 10 , 5
Last updated: September 28, 2023
Are you a python developer looking to improve your testing abilities with pytest? Me too! So I've put together a list of 9 tips and tricks I've found most useful in getting my tests looking sharp. Here are the features we're going to be covering today:
- Useful command-line arguments
skipandxfail- Mocking with
monkeypatch tmp_pathandimportlibfixtures and theconftest.pyfile- Testing python exceptions
- Checking stdout and log messages
- Parameterizing tests
- Using pytest-cov
All of the code discussed in this article can be found in the following
GitHub repository
I created. To run the code, you'll need pytest and pytest-cov, which you
can install with pip install pytest and pip install pytest-cov.
I recommend doing so in a virtual environment.
Setup
First, we'll take a quick look at the example code that we are going to
create tests for. The code contains a fairly simple Math class, with a
few simple static methods: add(), divide(), multiply(), which simply
perform that action on two numbers, along with slow() which just sleeps for
an amount of time set by the global variable GLOBAL_SLEEP_SECONDS. Next,
there's a function called some_math_function which takes two numbers as
parameters and uses all the above-mentioned class methods in sequence,
and prints and logs some messages based on how long it took.
Also in the module are three other unrelated example functions that will
help with explaining various pytest tricks. These include
update_file_via_pathlib() which will update a file given a pathlib path,
error_function() which will raise an error if the parameter passed to it
is True, and environment_var_function() which will return a message
based on an environment variable.
I'll show the entirety of this module here for your reference.
src/example.py
"""example: file with example python code to pytest"""
import logging
import os
import time
LOGGER = logging.getLogger(__name__)
GLOBAL_SLEEP_SECS = 3
DEBUG_MODE = False
class Math:
""" Class with simple math functions to test """
@staticmethod
def add(first, second):
""" Add two numbers"""
return first + second
@staticmethod
def divide(first, second):
""" Divide two numbers (excluding remainder) """
return first // second
@staticmethod
def multiply(first, second):
""" Multiply two numbers"""
return first * second
@staticmethod
def slow():
""" just slow down our main function """
print(f"SLEEPING {GLOBAL_SLEEP_SECS} seconds!")
time.sleep(GLOBAL_SLEEP_SECS)
def some_math_function(first, second, half=False):
""" Some function using Math """
before = time.time()
math = Math()
addition = math.add(first, second)
division = math.divide(first, second)
math.slow()
solution = math.multiply(addition, division)
after = time.time()
if after - before > 2:
LOGGER.warning("warning message!")
LOGGER.info("info message!")
print("print message")
if DEBUG_MODE:
LOGGER.debug("Only in debug!")
if half:
solution /= 2
return solution
def update_file_via_pathlib(path):
""" Get the contents of an input pathlib file object """
contents = path.read_text()
new_contents = "Check this out: " + contents.strip() + " BAM!"
path.write_text(new_contents)
return new_contents
def error_function(raise_error):
""" Function will raise an error if you'd like it to """
if raise_error:
raise RuntimeError("Alas, there is an error!")
return True
def environment_var_function():
""" Some function that deals with environment variables """
if os.environ.get("MY_VAR") == "true":
return "MY_VAR is set to 'true'"
else:
return "MY_VAR is not set to 'true'"
if __name__ == "__main__": # pragma: no cover
# This code won't get run by tests
print(some_math_function(2, 1))
Now let's get on to testing this code with my top ten pytest tips and tricks.
1. Useful command-line arguments
Here's my list of most useful command-line arguments along with short descriptions. I'll explain in more detail below:
-s (show std_out even if the test passes)
-k STRING (run test with STRING in the name)
-m MARKER (run tests containing a marker)
-v (verbose output -- show each test's name)
--tb=LENGTH (adjust the length of traceback messages)
--lf (re-run only the tests that failed)
--durations=n (see execution times for n slowest tests)
-s
Sometimes you want to see messages to standard out (usually print() messages).
These messages are normally captured and hidden from the user. They are only
shown for failed tests -- after the error stack trace is shown. If you want
to see messages to standard out for ALL tests, while the tests are running,
use the pytest -s switch.
-k STRING
The most basic command to run all your tests is simply calling pytest. Pytest
will search through your packages, find modules labeled test_something or
something_test, and then run all the functions that start with test_. You
can run against a specific folder or file with pytest folder_name or
pytest file_name. But say you want to run only a specific test or a subset
of tests. You can do so with pytest -k STRING. This will select only
tests that contain STRING in their name. If I had a test called
test_basic, I could run this test with pytest -k test_basic.
Notice this would also test a test named test_basic_code because
test_basic is also in that name.
-m MARKER
Sometimes you might want to consistently run a subset of tests together
and exclude other tests. You can mark these tests with a name of your
choice and run them later with pytest -m MARK. Let's look at an example:
My test file:
import pytest
def test_basic():
...
@pytest.mark.slow
def test_complicated():
...
If I were to run pytest -m slow, only the tests containing the
@pytest.mark.slow decorator (test_complicated()) would be run.
Furthermore, I could run pytest -m "not slow" to run all tests that
do not contain the @pytest.mark.slow decorator (test_basic()).
When creating markers, you'll also want to list your markers in your
pytest.ini file at the root of your project, otherwise pytest will
warn that you might have a typo in your marker name. The pytest.ini file
for the above example might look something like this:
[pytest]
markers =
slow: tests that run slowly
-v
A normal pytest run will list a module name followed by a series of .s,
one for each passed test or Fs, one for each failed test.
ie (example_test.py .FF..). You might want to see the name of each test
as they are run to quickly see which tests passed and which
tests failed. To do so use the -v (for verbose) flag. The same run tests might look
something like this:
src/example_test.py::test_basic PASSED
src/example_test.py::test_complicated FAILED
src/example_test.py::test_other FAILED
src/example_test.py::test_easy PASSED
src/example_test.py::test_thing PASSED
This verbose output showing specific test names is especially useful when debugging parametrized tests (see tip number 9 for more on parametrized testing).
--tb=LENGTH
When a test fails, you'll see a "traceback message". These are the messages
that show what the error was in your code, and where it's located.
The normal pytest traceback message is great. It's color-coded and super
detailed, so you can find out exactly what went wrong with your test. If
you're running a lot of tests and several "FAILURE"s occur though, those
messages can become very noisy. Introducing --tb=LENGTH. This argument
allows you to adjust the traceback message style to suit your needs. My
favorite "LENGTH" arguments are short, line, and no. I'll show how
their output looks below.
Here's an example test for our src/example.py file:
def test_failure():
""" A test designed to fail, will raise ZeroDivisionError """
example.Math().divide(1, 0)
Here's the standard traceback message (or --tb=auto):
@pytest.mark.failing
def test_failure():
""" A test designed to fail, will raise ZeroDivisionError """
> example.Math().divide(1, 0)
src/example_test.py:30:
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
first = 1, second = 0
@staticmethod
def divide(first, second):
""" Divide two numbers (excluding remainder) """
> return first // second
E ZeroDivisionError: integer division or modulo by zero
src/example.py:22: ZeroDivisionError
Here's with --tb=short:
src/example_test.py:30: in test_failure
example.Math().divide(1, 0)
src/example.py:22: in divide
return first // second
E ZeroDivisionError: integer division or modulo by zero
Here's with --tb=line:
/path/to/src/example.py:22: ZeroDivisionError: integer division or modulo by zero
With --tb=no you will not see any traceback. This can be useful if you just
want to find out which tests fail, then you can re-test an individual test
with a longer traceback to find out why it failed.
--lf/--last-failed
This command-line switch is convenient when you have a subset of your
tests failing. You can run pytest --lf, make changes to try to fix the
failing tests, and then repeat the command over to only run tests that
failed on the previous run until all tests pass.
--durations=n
The "durations" command line argument is super useful for timing your tests.
After all tests have run, it reports back the n slowest tests, with their
execution times. It will even distinguish between a test function's "call",
"setup" and "teardown" so you can see if it is the test itself ("call") that
is slow or the is it just the "setup" functions (fixtures) that are slow. If
--durations=0, all test execution times will be reported back. Here is an
example of what we see with --durations=3 for our example test suite.
================== slowest 3 durations ==================
3.00s call src/example_test.py::test_capsys
3.00s call src/example_test.py::test_caplog_debug
3.00s call src/example_test.py::test_caplog_standard
2. skip and xfail
Occasionally tests just don't work the way you want them to, or maybe
they test a feature that isn't implemented yet. Even though
these tests fail right now, you'd like to keep them around and
fix them in the future. Introducing skip and xfail.
skip
To mark a test to be skipped under all circumstances, decorate the
test function with a skip marker like so:
@pytest.mark.skip(reason="No way of testing this properly")
def test_skipped():
""" Mark a test to be always skipped with a reason (marked as s or SKIPPED) """
assert False
Now when you run your tests, this test will show up as an s under a normal
run. Under a verbose (-v) run the output will show SKIPPED (REASON) (for
the above test SKIPPED (No way of testing this properly)). If you only want
to skip a test under certain conditions, mark with skipif like so:
@pytest.mark.skipif(
os.environ.get("SKIP") != "1", reason="It only works if SKIP is set to '1'"
)
def test_skipped_if():
""" Mark a test to be skipped under certain conditions with a reason """
assert True
Notice, the first argument to the skipif decorator resolves to a boolean
(True or False) value which will skip the test if the boolean value
resolves to True or run test normally if the value resolves to False.
xfail
Another option if you know your test fails under certain conditions, is to
mark it as xfail. This says, "Yes, I know this test fails,
but I want to leave it as is and not see a "FAILED" message or traceback.
Marking a test for xfail looks like this:
@pytest.mark.xfail(
condition=os.environ.get("MY_VAR") == "true",
reason="It should fail if MY_VAR is set to 'true'",
)
def test_xfail():
""" Mark a test to be expected to fail under conditions """
assert example.environment_var_function() == "MY_VAR is not set to 'true'"
Notice my first parameter is condition. Just like with skipif, I make a
boolean condition where the test is known to fail. If that condition is not
met, the test is run normally. If that condition is met, the test is run
as an xfail (meaning you expect the test to fail). If the test does fail
(as expected), the result is marked with a lower case x (or XFAIL (REASON)
in verbose mode). If the test passes (not expected), the result is marked
with an upper case X, or XPASS (REASON) in verbose mode.
3. Mocking with monkeypatch
Sometimes things are a little too complicated, slow, or just out of your
control for you to effectively test a section of code. In this case,
you need to mock that functionality to get your test to run properly.
monkeypatch is the built-in way to mock objects in pytest. With monkeypatch,
you can mock global variables, functions and methods, class attributes,
or even environment variables. Here are some examples of how to use monkeypatch
for your mocking needs.
Mock a global variable
Recall, one of the main functions we are testing in example.py is
some_math_function(). This function calls the Math.slow() method,
which sleeps for GLOBAL_SLEEP_SECONDS (where GLOBAL_SLEEP_SECONDS) is
an environment variable that is sed to 3 seconds at the top of the module.
In the following test we will mock GLOBAL_SLEEP_SECONDS, resetting that
global environment variable to 1 second instead of 3seconds:
@pytest.mark.speed_check
def test_faster(monkeypatch):
""" Test with monkeypatch of slow GLOBAL_SLEEP_SECS removed """
monkeypatch.setattr(example, "GLOBAL_SLEEP_SECS", 1)
answer = example.some_math_function(2, 1)
assert answer == 6
Here we use the monkeypatch built-in fixture (more on fixtures later)
as a function argument in our test, allowing us to use monkeypatch in the
test. We call monkeypatch.setattr(OBJECT, "ATTRIBUTE", ATTRIBUTE_VALUE)
to set the object's ATTRIBUTE to ATTRIBUTE_VALUE. If we want to
replace a module's global variable with a new one, the OBJECT is the
module containing the global variable (note we had imported the module example
before using it in the test). The second argument is the attribute we want
to replace as a string (ie, in quotation marks) -- in this case, the module's
global variable GLOBAL_SLEEP_SECONDS is the attribute we want to be replaced.
Finally, the third argument is the value we want to set the attribute (argument
2) with. Here we are changing that value to 1. Now the test will run with
a 1-second sleep instead of its original 3-second sleep. After the test is
over, all objects changed by monkeypatch revert to their original values.
Mock a function with a replacement function
It might be necessary to replace a function (or class method) that is called
in the course of your test with a simpler function. In this next example,
we're going to replace two class methods with replacement methods. Recall
in our example.py module, slow, sleeps for a set amount of time and
multiply multiplies two numbers together. Here's how we can replace
those methods with new methods:
@pytest.mark.speed_check
def test_mocked_functions(monkeypatch):
""" Test monkeypatch replacing a function with a different function """
def fake_multiply(_self, _first, _second):
""" Output 2 regardless of input """
return 2
monkeypatch.setattr(example.Math, "slow", lambda _: None)
monkeypatch.setattr(example.Math, "multiply", fake_multiply)
answer = example.some_math_function(2, 1)
assert answer == 2
Like in the above example, monkeypatch is a function argument of our test,
allowing us to use the monkeypatch fixture as an object in our test. We want
to replace the slow function with a fast function that does nothing when
called. To use monkeypatch that function recall we use
monkeypatch.setattr(OBJECT, "ATTRIBUTE", ATTRIBUTE_VALUE). In this case, the
OBJECT is the example.py module's Math class. The ATTRIBUTE to be
replaced is the slow method (in quotation marks). For the third argument,
we replace the slow method with a lambda function (an inline,
nameless function). This lambda function will receive the same arguments
as the real function would send. In our case, it will receive one argument which
we don't care about so we replace it with _ (although if you're interested,
the argument passed during the test is the class's self object). The lambda
function returns None. This means that time.sleep(GLOBAL_SLEEP_SECS)
is no longer called by Math.slow, so the test should run almost instantly.
The multiply method could also be replaced with a lambda function, but
here we'll show how to replace it with a named function. First, we create
the replacement function inside the test. The replacement function here is
fake_multiply and it will receive three arguments. I labeled those arguments
with leading underscores to indicate they won't be used by our mocked function
(note, however, if we wanted to, we could use those variables in the mocked
function). The function simply returns 2 no matter what input it receives.
We monkeypatch replace the multiply method the same way we replaced the
slow method, using fake_multiply as the replacement
function (third argument). When the test runs, both monkeypatched class
methods are replaced with their mocked functions.
Set or remove an environment variable for a test
If environment variables are important to your code, you may want to manipulate
environment variables as part of your tests. Introducing monkeypatch.delenv
and monkeypatch.setenv. Let's take a look at an example. This is the
function we are testing in example.py:
def environment_var_function():
""" Some function that deals with environment variables """
if os.environ.get("MY_VAR") == "true":
return "MY_VAR is set to 'true'"
else:
return "MY_VAR is not set to 'true'"
The test we are using looks like this:
def test_alter_environment_variable(monkeypatch):
""" Test with monkeypatch setting an environment variable """
# If raising=True (default) will raise error if MY_VAR doesn't exist
monkeypatch.delenv("MY_VAR", raising=False)
assert example.environment_var_function() == "MY_VAR is not set to 'true'"
monkeypatch.setenv("MY_VAR", "true")
assert example.environment_var_function() == "MY_VAR is set to 'true'"
As in previous examples, the monkeypatch fixture is an argument for our function.
The important environment variable for this function is MY_VAR. First,
we remove the environment variable in case it is already set to something
with monkeypatch.delenv("MY_VAR", raising=False). Note, as the comment
explains, if raising is set to True (default), pytest will raise an error
if MY_VAR was not already set. Later in the test, we set MY_VAR to our
desired value "true", using monkeypatch.setenv("MY_VAR", "true").
After the test concludes, the environment variable will be reverted to
the value it had before the test ran.
4. tmp_path and importlib
Sometimes you will test code that writes to files. Testing
this type of code can be difficult, as you want all of your files to be
the same before and after your tests run. importlib and tmp_path
come in clutch for this type of test.
Here's an example function we'll want to test from example.py:
def update_file_via_pathlib(path):
""" Get the contents of an input pathlib file object """
contents = path.read_text()
new_contents = "Check this out: " + contents.strip() + " BAM!"
path.write_text(new_contents)
return new_contents
This function reads a file, then re-writes the file with updated text
before and after the file. To test the functionality let's say we have
a long, complicated test file named infile.txt under a separate directory in
our project called test_data. (Note: for this example, the actual file text
just reads "Awesome test data!"). We want to make sure our test can update
infile.txt, but we don't want that file to change every time the test
runs. Here's a test that does just that:
import importlib
...
def test_update_file_pathlib(tmp_path):
""" Test the update_file_pathlib function """
# Establish path to a temporary file under a temporary directory
test_file = tmp_path.joinpath("testfile.txt")
# Get the file contents of a file in our test_data directory
with importlib.resources.path(
"pytest_examples.test_data", "infile.txt"
) as test_path_og:
# Write data from our test_data directory file to the temporary file
test_file.write_text(test_path_og.read_text())
example.update_file_via_pathlib(test_file)
assert test_file.read_text() == "Check this out: Awesome test data! BAM!"
Let's break down what's happening in this test. First tmp_path is a
fixture object (like monkeypatch - more on fixtures later) that is
a function argument for our test. The tmp_path fixture creates a
temporary directory (that will be deleted after the test ends) and returns
a pathlib.Path
object for that temporary directory. With test_file = tmp_path.joinpath("testfile.txt")
we point to a temporary file in the temporary directory. Next
with importlib.resources.path(
"pytest_examples.test_data", "infile.txt"
) as test_path_og:
test_file.write_text(test_path_og.read_text())
This with context block imports our test file (infile.txt) from our
test directory as a pathlib.Path object. Note the file structure when
using importlib:
pytest_examples/
├── __init__.py
|
├── src/
| ├── __init__.py
| ├── example_test.py
| └── example.py
|
├── test_data/
| ├── __init__.py
| └── infile.txt
Each directory (including the base project directory) must be treated as a
package, meaning it must contain an __init__.py file for
importlib to see the file your want it to see. The arguments are
importlib.resources.path("PACKAGE", "FILE"). Then with the line
test_file.write_text(test_path_og.read_text()) we are writing the contents
of our test infile.txt to our temporary file testfile.txt in our
temporary directory. We then proceed to alter our test file using our
function we are testing update_file_via_pathlib(PATH). The temporary
file is updated instead of our permanent test_data/infile.txt file, and
we can test the update was successful. The temporary file will be deleted
after the test concludes.
5. fixtures and the conftest.py file
Sometimes in your tests, you will need an action performed before (and possibly
after) a test is run. A common action is creating and then deleting a resource
like a database. This is called setup and teardown. In pytest,
this functionality is best achieved through fixtures. Fixtures are
simply functions that are used as arguments to your test that do something,
return an object to use during the test, and then possibly do something else
after the test completes. We've already used fixtures in this article.
monkeypatch and tmp_path are built-in fixtures (ie fixtures in pytest's
code). Creating your own custom fixtures is very easy. Just write a
function that is visible to your test, mark the function as a fixture,
and then insert that function as an argument to your test.
Let's look at an example:
import random
import pytest
...
@pytest.fixture
def speedup(monkeypatch): # Notice I pass a fixture (monkeypatch) to another fixture
""" Fixture to speed up tests by fixing GLOBAL_SLEEP_SECS """
sleep_time = random.randint(1, 10) / 50
monkeypatch.setattr(example, "GLOBAL_SLEEP_SECS", sleep_time)
return sleep_time
def test_with_speedup(speedup):
""" Use local fixture in test """
answer = example.some_math_function(2, 1)
assert answer == 6
The function speedup is a fixture because it is decorated with
@pytest.fixture. Note that fixtures can call on other fixtures, so in
this example, speedup calls on the built-in fixture monkeypatch.
It then uses monkeypatch to change the value of GLOBAL_SLEEP_SECONDS to
a short random number between .02 and .2. and returns GLOBAL_SLEEP_SECONDS
new value. Our test test_with_speedup uses the local fixture speedup
(local, meaning in the same module). The result is the test runs much
faster after altering the GLOBAL_SLEEP_SECONDS global variable.
The fixture can also be stored in a centralized location so lots of different
test files can see the same fixture. To do this, store your fixtures in
a file named conftest.py, either in the same folder as your tests, or
in a parent folder of the tests. Then just treat that fixture as if it
were a local fixture in the same file as your test. Let's see an example
of how this works:
In conftest.py:
@pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
def time_test():
""" Time a test and print out how long it took """
before = time.time()
yield
after = time.time()
print(f"Test took {after - before:.02f} seconds!")
@pytest.fixture(autouse=True, scope="session")
def time_all_tests():
""" Time a test and print out how long it took """
before = time.time()
yield
after = time.time()
print(f"Total test time: {after - before:.02f} seconds!")
In example_test.py:
@pytest.mark.speed_check
def test_basic():
""" Test main without any changes """
answer = example.some_math_function(2, 1)
assert answer == 6
Here we introduce several new facts about fixtures. First, the
@pytest.fixture decorator can take arguments. Here we pass autouse=True.
This makes it so tests will automatically use the fixtures time_test
and time_all_tests which use autouse=True. If we didn't set autouse=True,
we would have to call the fixtures for every test that wanted to use them
by providing them as function parameters (like speedup above).
Next, fixtures can be scoped.
By default a fixture will use scope="function", and the fixture will
run for every function that calls it. time_test will run for every function,
even without being explicitly called because
it is set to autouse=True and to the default scope="function".
time_all_tests will run only once because it set scope="session", meaning
once per testing session. The final new idea introduced here is using, yield
in our fixtures. If yield is used instead of return, your fixture will first
perform its setup. It will then yield some value (in our case nothing -- or
None -- is yielded, but any object can be yielded to the test). Finally,
after the test is run (or all the tests are finished running if the
scope="session") the code after the yield statement will run
(ie, the teardown).
Therefore in our example, time_test will get the time
before every test, yield to the test run, get the time after each test,
and then print the difference between those times (ie how long the test took
to run). Likewise, time_all_tests will get the time before the first test is
run, yield to all the tests, get the time after the last test has run,
and report the difference (ie, the time it took for all the tests to run).
6. Testing python exceptions
Your code might generate exceptions, either intentionally with raises ERROR,
or unintentionally with an error raised by a dependent library or the standard
library. To test exceptions in your code, use a with pytest.raises(ERROR)
context block. Let's see an example:
In example.py:
def error_function(raise_error):
""" Function will raise an error if you'd like it to """
if raise_error:
raise RuntimeError("Alas, there is an error!")
return True
In example_test.py:
import pytest
...
def test_error_raising():
""" Test that use pytest.raises to check for errors """
with pytest.raises(RuntimeError):
example.error_function(True)
with pytest.raises(RuntimeError, match="Alas, there is an error!"):
example.error_function(True)
with pytest.raises(RuntimeError, match="Alas.*there.*error!"):
example.error_function(True)
assert example.error_function(False) is True
We use with pytest.raises(RuntimeError): to tell pytest "we expect this
block of code to raise a RuntimeError. If a RuntimeError error is raised,
the test continues. If a RuntimeError is not raised, the test will fail
with an exception message Failed: DID NOT RAISE <class 'RuntimeError'>.
In this way, you ensure an error is raised where expected. For even more
control you can ensure that the error message matches what you expect.
To do so use with pytest.raises(ERROR, matches=MATCHES), where matches
is a regex style string matching the expected error message.
7. Checking stdout and log messages
Your code may write messages out to a log, or it might print() messages
to std_out or std_error. You might want to test that those messages are
actually logging or printing as you expected. To test for those messages
we need two new built-in fixtures -- caplog and capsys. For example,
tests using caplog and capsys recall that the file we are testing,
example.py has a function some_math_function with these lines of
code:
...
if after - before > 2:
LOGGER.warning("warning message!")
LOGGER.info("info message!")
print("print message")
We will write tests to make sure those lines of code are reached if
the function takes more than 2 seconds before reaching that point.
Use caplog to test for log messages
With the caplog built-in fixture, we can test for log messages in our code.
Let's look at an example:
@pytest.mark.output_capturing
def test_caplog_standard(caplog):
""" Use caplog to test logging messages (at standard WARNING level) """
answer = example.some_math_function(2, 1)
assert answer == 6
assert "warning message!" in caplog.text
assert "info message!" not in caplog.text
To use the caplog built-in fixture, we use caplog as an argument to our
test function (just like we do with any other fixture). caplog then captures
logging output to itself (rather than a log file or wherever it was being
written to before). To see the contents of the captured log output,
we can use caplog.text. Note in the example, the log info message
was not captured. This is because by default loggers capture warning
level and above messages. To capture an info level message, we can make the
caplog fixture temporarily alter our logger to report info level messages, like so:
In example_test.py:
@pytest.mark.output_capturing
def test_caplog_debug(caplog):
"""Use caplog to test logging messages (at debug level)"""
caplog.set_level(logging.DEBUG)
answer = example.some_math_function(2, 1)
assert answer == 6
assert "warning message!" in caplog.text
assert "info message!" in caplog.text
Use capsys to test for stdout and stderr messages
Now we want to capture the line print("print message") from example.py.
This message is sent to stdout. We can capture messages sent to stdout
(like print messages) with capsys. That looks like so:
@pytest.mark.output_capturing
def test_capsys(capsys):
""" Use caplog to test print messages"""
answer = example.some_math_function(2, 1)
assert answer == 6
captured = capsys.readouterr() # Note this resets the internal buffer
assert "print message" in captured.out
Just like with caplog, capsys is a built-in fixture that we use as
an argument to our test function. It then captures all messages sent
to stdout and stderr to itself instead of the terminal. To read
messages in capsys captured internal buffer call capsys.readouterr().
This resets the buffer and returns what was in the buffer up until that
point. Here we set the contents of the buffer to an object, captured.
To see what was in that captured output, use captured.out.
8. Parameterizing tests
It is often useful to test a function with many different sets of input
parameters. You could do this all in one test by testing one set of
parameters, asserting the output, testing the next, asserting the next output,
etc. But it is a better practice to keep your tests as short as possible,
with some developers suggesting limiting to one assert statement if
possible. While I think the one assert statement requirement is
a bit extreme, we can reduce our assert statement count considerably with
these types of tests by parameterizing. What does that look like?
Let's see an example.
In example_test.py:
import pytest
...
PARAMS = [
(2, 1, 6),
(7, 3, 20),
pytest.param(25, 5, 150, id="large"),
pytest.param(-5, -3, -8, id="with_negatives"),
]
@pytest.mark.parametrize("first, second, expected", PARAMS)
def test_param_standard(speedup, first, second, expected):
""" Test function with standard params """
answer = example.some_math_function(first, second)
assert answer == expected
What we do here is decorate our test function with
@pytest.mark.parametrize("PARAM VARIABLES", ITERABLE_OF_ITERABLES). The "PARAM VARIABLES"
is a string of comma-separated variable names to use in your test.
The values for these variables will be filled by an iterable (a tuple,
list, generator, etc.) that will expand to the exact number of variables
you specified in "PARAM VARIABLES". In the example, our variables are
first, second, and expected (3 variables). So each iterable must have 3
pieces. See the first iterable is a tuple (2, 1, 6). Since our input
ITERABLE_OF_ITERABLES contains 4 iterables, this test will run 4 times,
each time expanding the contained iterable to the parameters first,
second, and expected for our test. The first time the test runs first == 2,
second == 1, expected == 6. The second time the test runs first == 7,
second == 3, expected == 20.
If the test is run normally, we'll see 4 ., one for each passed variant of the test.
If it is run in verbose mode, pytest will try to name the tests with something that
makes sense, for the first test appending [2-1-6] to the test name. If we
want the verbose mode name to be more descriptive, we can use
pytest.param(ARGUMENTS, id=ID). So for our third parametrized test run,
the numbers (25, 5, 150) are sent to pytest as first, second, expected,
but the test is named "large", in verbose mode. The resulting output looks
like this:
src/example_test.py::test_param_standard[2-1-6] PASSED
src/example_test.py::test_param_standard[7-3-20] PASSED
src/example_test.py::test_param_standard[large] PASSED
src/example_test.py::test_param_standard[with_negatives] PASSED
Another thing you can do with parametrized testing is test two or more
sets of parameters alongside one another. If a test is decorated with
@pytest.mark.parametrize multiple times, pytest will run every combination
of those parameters. Let's see this with another example:
import pytest
...
PARAMS = [
(2, 1, 6),
(7, 3, 20),
pytest.param(25, 5, 150, id="large"),
pytest.param(-5, -3, -8, id="with_negatives"),
]
...
@pytest.mark.parametrize("first, second, expected", PARAMS)
@pytest.mark.parametrize("half", (True, False))
def test_param_multiple_sets(speedup, first, second, expected, half):
""" Test 2 sets of parameters """
answer = example.some_math_function(first, second, half=half)
if half:
assert answer == expected / 2
else:
assert answer == expected
Here, the test is nearly the same as above, except a second
@pytest.mark.parametrize decorator is tact on with an new parameter half,
with the possible values of True or False. Pytest will use every
combination of the 4 sets of parameters from the top parameterize with the
2 parameters from the bottom parameterize for a total of 2x4=8 (eight)
tests run. Once again, pytest will try to name the tests in a way it thinks
makes sense. The verbose output of that run looks like so:
src/example_test.py::test_param_multiple_sets[True-2-1-6] PASSED
src/example_test.py::test_param_multiple_sets[True-7-3-20] PASSED
src/example_test.py::test_param_multiple_sets[True-large] PASSED
src/example_test.py::test_param_multiple_sets[True-with_negatives] PASSED
src/example_test.py::test_param_multiple_sets[False-2-1-6] PASSED
src/example_test.py::test_param_multiple_sets[False-7-3-20] PASSED
src/example_test.py::test_param_multiple_sets[False-large] PASSED
src/example_test.py::test_param_multiple_sets[False-with_negatives] PASSED
9. Using pytest-cov
It is important to know how much of your codebase is covered by tests, and
specifically, it is important to know which lines of your codebase are
run by tests, and which lines are not run. Pytest has a great tool for this
called pytest-cov (which uses coverage.py under the hood). To use
pytest-cov, first pip install pytest-cov. Then run your tests like normal
with a couple of extra command-line arguments. A standard run with pytest-cov
looks like pytest --cov=CODE_TO_CHECK_COVERAGE. So if I wanted to see how
much of my src directory was covered by tests I'd run pytest --cov=src.
pytest-cov will track which lines of code were run and send that information
to std_out like so:
----------- coverage: platform linux, python 3.8.5-final-0 -----------
Name Stmts Miss Cover
-----------------------------------------
src/__init__.py 0 0 100%
src/conftest.py 22 0 100%
src/example.py 50 1 98%
src/example_test.py 106 3 97%
-----------------------------------------
TOTAL 178 4 98%
This output is useful, but we don't see specifically which lines in
src/example.py were covered by our tests and which lines were missed.
For a more detailed, interactive output use the argument --cov-report=html.
When this command-line argument is added, an htmlcov directory appears in
the directory the tests were run from. This htmlcov directory contains
a bunch of HTML, JS, CSS, etc. files that create an interactive
website for viewing code coverage.
If you have a tool like VS code extension
open in browser, you can right-click htmlcov/index.html and select
"open in Default browser" to view the website. The index page shows
coverage like the above std_out report. If you then click on src/example.py
though, you are brought to a page showing src/example.py source code,
highlighted green when lines are covered and red where lines
are un-covered.
If there is a line or block of code (like an if statement) that you want
pytest-cov to ignore in its coverage calculations, then comment that line
or block of code with #pragma: no cover. Those lines will then be marked
as excluded rather than missing, and they won't count toward the percentage
of lines covered vs uncovered.
Conclusions
Those are my top 9 tips and tricks for using pytest to the fullest. If you have any others you think I missed, I'd love to hear about them in the comments. Looking for more information about testing with pytest? I recommend reading through pytests thorough documentation for yourself. For another awesome and much more thorough guide to these pytest features and many more, I highly recommend the book Python Testing with pytest: Simple, Rapid, Effective, and Scalable by Brian Okken. Happy testing!
About the author
Hi, my name is Teddy Williams. I'm a software developer with a special love for python programming. 🐍👨💻 I have a wide range of programming interests including web development, hobby video game development, IoT, data science and just writing scripts to automate everyday boring tasks. I'd love it if you check out some of my other posts or take a look at my portfolio! :)
Thanks for reading this post! 💚 If you like the post, let me know by hitting the icon below, and if you have any questions or comments I'd love to hear them in the comments section. Thanks, and happy coding! 🎉