Implementing a Stack using Test-Driven Development

Question

I am doing my first steps with TDD. The problem is (as probably with everyone starting with TDD), I never know very well what kind of unit tests to do when I start working in my projects.

Let's assume I want to write a Stack class with the following methods(I choose it as it's an easy example):

Stack<T>
 - Push(element : T)
 - Pop() : T
 - Peek() : T
 - Count : int
 - IsEmpty : boolean

How would you approch this? I never understood if the idea is to test a few corner cases for each method of the Stack class or start by doing a few "use cases" with the class, like adding 10 elements and removing them. What is the idea? To make code that uses the Stack as close as possible to what I'll use in my real code? Or just make simple "add one element" unit tests where I test if IsEmpty and Count were changed by adding that element?

How am I supposed to start with this?

EDIT

Here's my rough tests' implementation:

    [TestMethod]
    public void PushTests() {
        StackZ<string> stackz = new StackZ<string>();

        for (int i = 0; i < 5; ++i) {
            int oldSize = stackz.Size;
            stackz.Push(i.ToString());
            int newSize = stackz.Size;
            Assert.AreEqual(oldSize + 1, newSize);
            Assert.IsFalse(stackz.IsEmpty);
        }
    }

    [TestMethod, ExpectedException(typeof(InvalidOperationException))]
    public void PeekTestsWhenEmpty() {
        StackZ<double> stackz = new StackZ<double>();
        stackz.Peek();
    }

    [TestMethod]
    public void PeekTestsWhenNotEmpty() {
        StackZ<int> stackz = new StackZ<int>();
        stackz.Push(5);

        int firstPeekValue = stackz.Peek();

        for (int i = 0; i < 5; ++i) {
            Assert.AreEqual(stackz.Peek(), firstPeekValue);
        }
    }

    [TestMethod, ExpectedException(typeof(InvalidOperationException))]
    public void PopTestsWhenEmpty() {
        StackZ<float> stackz = new StackZ<float>();
        stackz.Pop();
    }

    [TestMethod]
    public void PopTestsWhenNotEmpty() {
        StackZ<int> stackz = new StackZ<int>();

        for (int i = 0; i < 5; ++i) {
            stackz.Push(i);
        }

        for (int i = 4; i >= 0; ++i) {
            int oldSize = stackz.Size;
            int popValue = stackz.Pop();
            Assert.AreEqual(popValue, i);
            int newSize = stackz.Size;
            Assert.AreEqual(oldSize, newSize + 1);
        }

        Assert.IsTrue(stackz.IsEmpty);
    }

Any corrections/ideas about it? Thanks

Answer 1

Start by testing the basic principles of your API.

Test on zero elements.

• Test that it's empty.
• Count is zero.
• Pop fails.

Test on one element:

• Call Push.
• Test that it's not empty.
• Test that count is 1.
• Test that Pop returns the element.
• Test that it's now empty.
• Test that count is now 0.

Test on >1 elements:

• Now Push 2 and test count is two.
• Pop 2 and make sure they come in LIFO order.
• Check the emptiness and counts.

Each of these would be at least one test case.

For example (roughly outlined in Google's unit test framework for c++):

TEST(StackTest, TestEmpty) {
  Stack s;
  EXPECT_TRUE(s.empty());
  s.push(1);
  EXPECT_FALSE(s.empty());
  s.pop();
  EXPECT_TRUE(s.empty());
}

TEST(StackTest, TestCount) {
  Stack s;
  EXPECT_EQ(0, s.count());
  s.push(1);
  EXPECT_EQ(1, s.count());
  s.push(2);
  EXPECT_EQ(2, s.count());
  s.pop();
  EXPECT_EQ(1, s.count());
  s.pop();
  EXPECT_EQ(0, s.count());
}

TEST(StackTest, TestOneElement) {
  Stack s;
  s.push(1);
  EXPECT_EQ(1, s.pop());
}

TEST(StackTest, TestTwoElementsAreLifo) {
  Stack s;
  s.push(1);
  s.push(2);
  EXPECT_EQ(2, s.pop());
  EXPECT_EQ(1, s.pop());
}

TEST(StackTest, TestEmptyPop) {
  Stack s;
  EXPECT_EQ(NULL, s.pop());
}


TEST(StackTest, TestEmptyOnEmptyPop) {
 Stack s;
  EXPECT_TRUE(s.empty());
  s.pop();
  EXPECT_TRUE(s.empty());
}

TEST(StackTest, TestCountOnEmptyPop) {
  Stack s;
  EXPECT_EQ(0, s.count());
  s.pop();
  EXPECT_EQ(0, s.count());
}