How should I test this method

Hi I'm quite new to testing and I want to know what kind of testing should I do with this piece of code

public function setCountry($data)
{
    //Some checks..
    
    //Get country
    $cc = array_get($data, 'data.country_code');
    $country = Country::where('cc', $cc)->first()->name;

    $this->country = $country;
}

Should I unit test or integration test this? Or even both? If so, how ?

bobbybouwmann

8 years ago

Best Answer

Level 88

In this case you are making a database call, because you fetch a model from the database. So it looks like an integration test. Your test might look like this:

Note that I assume your method is inside a controller

class SomeController extends Controller
{
    protected $country = null;

    public function setCountry($data)
    {
        $cc = array_get($data, 'data.country_code');
        $country = Country::where('cc', $cc)->first();

        $this->country = $country->name;
    }

    public function getCountry()    
    {
        return $this->country;
    }
}

In your test you can simply call this method and be done with it

class SomeControllerTest extends TestCase
{
    public function testSetCountryMethod()
    {
        $country = factory(App\Country::class)->create([
            'country_code' => 'nl',
        ]);

        $controller = new SomeController();
        $controller->setCountry([
            'data' => [
                'country_code' => 'nl',
            ],
        ]);

        // Here is your assertion
        $this->assertEquals('nl', $controller->getCountry());
    }
}

See here for the factory method that I'm using: https://laravel.com/docs/5.5/database-testing#introduction

If you want to unit test this you need to split your controller methods into smaller methods. For example

class SomeController extends Controller
{
    protected = $country = null;

    public function setCountry($data)
    {
        // Do your magic here

        $cc = array_get($data, 'data.country_code');
        $country = Country::where('cc', $cc)->first();

        $this_>setCountryCode($country->name);
    }

    public function setCountryCode($countryCode)
    {
        $this->countryCode = $countryCode;
    }

    public function getCountryCode()
    {
        return $this->countryCode;
    }
}

Now that you have split it up you can write a unit test for that specific method. That's homework for now ;)