Python unit test with base and sub class

Question

Do not use multiple inheritance, it will bite you later.

Instead you can just move your base class into the separate module or wrap it with the blank class:

class BaseTestCases:

    class BaseTest(unittest.TestCase):

        def testCommon(self):
            print('Calling BaseTest:testCommon')
            value = 5
            self.assertEqual(value, 5)


class SubTest1(BaseTestCases.BaseTest):

    def testSub1(self):
        print('Calling SubTest1:testSub1')
        sub = 3
        self.assertEqual(sub, 3)


class SubTest2(BaseTestCases.BaseTest):

    def testSub2(self):
        print('Calling SubTest2:testSub2')
        sub = 4
        self.assertEqual(sub, 4)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main()

The output:

Calling BaseTest:testCommon
.Calling SubTest1:testSub1
.Calling BaseTest:testCommon
.Calling SubTest2:testSub2
.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 4 tests in 0.001s

OK

Use multiple inheritance, so your class with common tests doesn't itself inherit from TestCase.

import unittest

class CommonTests(object):
    def testCommon(self):
        print 'Calling BaseTest:testCommon'
        value = 5
        self.assertEquals(value, 5)

class SubTest1(unittest.TestCase, CommonTests):

    def testSub1(self):
        print 'Calling SubTest1:testSub1'
        sub = 3
        self.assertEquals(sub, 3)


class SubTest2(unittest.TestCase, CommonTests):

    def testSub2(self):
        print 'Calling SubTest2:testSub2'
        sub = 4
        self.assertEquals(sub, 4)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main()

You can solve this problem with a single command:

del(BaseTest)

So the code would look like this:

import unittest

class BaseTest(unittest.TestCase):

    def testCommon(self):
        print 'Calling BaseTest:testCommon'
        value = 5
        self.assertEquals(value, 5)

class SubTest1(BaseTest):

    def testSub1(self):
        print 'Calling SubTest1:testSub1'
        sub = 3
        self.assertEquals(sub, 3)


class SubTest2(BaseTest):

    def testSub2(self):
        print 'Calling SubTest2:testSub2'
        sub = 4
        self.assertEquals(sub, 4)

del(BaseTest)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main()

Matthew Marshall's answer is great, but it requires that you inherit from two classes in each of your test cases, which is error-prone. Instead, I use this (python>=2.7):

class BaseTest(unittest.TestCase):

    @classmethod
    def setUpClass(cls):
        if cls is BaseTest:
            raise unittest.SkipTest("Skip BaseTest tests, it's a base class")
        super(BaseTest, cls).setUpClass()

You can add __test__ = False in BaseTest class, but if you add it, be aware that you must add __test__ = True in derived classes to be able to run tests.

import unittest

class BaseTest(unittest.TestCase):
    __test__ = False

    def testCommon(self):
        print 'Calling BaseTest:testCommon'
        value = 5
        self.assertEquals(value, 5)

class SubTest1(BaseTest):
    __test__ = True

    def testSub1(self):
        print 'Calling SubTest1:testSub1'
        sub = 3
        self.assertEquals(sub, 3)


class SubTest2(BaseTest):
    __test__ = True

    def testSub2(self):
        print 'Calling SubTest2:testSub2'
        sub = 4
        self.assertEquals(sub, 4)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main()