Unit tests for deep cloning

Question

Let's say I have a complex .NET class, with lots of arrays and other class object members. I need to be able to generate a deep clone of this object - so I write a Clone() method, and implement it with a simple BinaryFormatter serialize/deserialize - or perhaps I do the deep clone using some other technique which is more error prone and I'd like to make sure is tested.

OK, so now (ok, I should have done it first) I'd like write tests which cover the cloning. All the members of the class are private, and my architecture is so good (!) that I haven't needed to write hundreds of public properties or other accessors. The class isn't IComparable or IEquatable, because that's not needed by the application. My unit tests are in a separate assembly to the production code.

What approaches do people take to testing that the cloned object is a good copy? Do you write (or rewrite once you discover the need for the clone) all your unit tests for the class so that they can be invoked with either a 'virgin' object or with a clone of it? How would you test if part of the cloning wasn't deep enough - as this is just the kind of problem which can give hideous-to-find bugs later?

Answer 1

You method of testing will depend on the type of solution you come up with. If you write some custom cloning code and have to manually implement that in each cloneable type then you should really test the cloning of each one of those types. Alternatively, if you decide to go a more generic route (where the aforementioned reflection would likely fit in), your tests would only need to test the specific scenarios that you cloning system will have to deal with.

To answer your specific questions:

Do you write (or rewrite once you discover the need for the clone) all your unit tests for the class so that they can be invoked with either a 'virgin' object or with a clone of it?

You should have tests for all the methods that can be performed on both the original and cloned objects. Note that it should be pretty easy to set up a simple test design to support this without manually updating the logic for each test.

How would you test if part of the cloning wasn't deep enough - as this is just the kind of problem which can give hideous-to-find bugs later?

It depends on the cloning method you choose. If you have to manually update the cloneable types then you should test that each type is cloning all (and only) the members you expect. Whereas, if you are testing a cloning framework I would create some test cloneable types to test each scenario you need to support.