Arrange, Act, Assert

Most of our unit tests have been following a particular pattern, commonly called arrange, act, assert. Let’s quickly review that pattern, as it is very important to understand how it integrates with the use of test doubles later in this chapter.

A simple unit test following the arrange, act, assert pattern consists of three major steps:

1. Arrange - first, the objects to be tested and any supporting data is created within the test.
2. Act - secondly, the operation being tested is carried out, usually by calling one or more methods.
3. Assert - once the operation is complete, we use assertions to verify that the outcome of the operation is correct.

In some instances, we may also include a fourth step, Teardown, which is used to reset the state back to its initial state, if needed. There are times when our arrange step makes some changes to the environment that must be reversed before we can continue.

Let’s go back to a unit test you may have explored in example 3 and see how it fits the arrange, act, assert pattern.

@Test
public void testSevenWrongGuessesShouldLose() {
    // Arrange
    GuessingGame game = new GuessingGame("secret");
    
    // Act
    game.guess('a');
    game.guess('b');
    game.guess('d');
    game.guess('f');
    game.guess('g');
    game.guess('h');
    game.guess('i');
    
    // Assert
    assertTrue(game.isLost());
}

def test_seven_wrong_guesses_should_lose(self):
    # Arrange
    game = GuessingGame("secret")
    
    # Act
    game.guess('a')
    game.guess('b')
    game.guess('d')
    game.guess('f')
    game.guess('g')
    game.guess('h')
    game.guess('i')
    
    # Assert
    assert game.lost

In both of these tests, we start in the arrange portion by instantiating a GuessingGame object, which is the object we will be testing. Then, in the act phase, we call several methods in the GuessingGame object - in this case, we are checking that seven incorrect guesses should cause the game to be lost, so we must make seven incorrect guesses. Finally, in the assert section, we use a simple assertion to make sure the game has been lost.

Given a 5 by 5 game
When I toggle the cell at (3, 2)
Then the grid should look like
.....
.....
.....
..X..
.....

private Game game;
private StringRenderer renderer;

@Given("a $width by $height game")
public void theGameIsRunning(int width, int height) {
    game = new Game(width, height);
    renderer = new StringRenderer();
    game.setObserver(renderer);
}
    
@When("I toggle the cell at ($column, $row)")
public void iToggleTheCellAt(int column, int row) {
    game.toggleCellAt(column, row);
}

@Then("the grid should look like $grid")
public void theGridShouldLookLike(String grid) {
    assertThat(renderer.asString(), equalTo(grid));
}