Testing for assert in the Boost Test framework

Question

I use the Boost Test framework to unit test my C++ code and wondered if it is possible to test if a function will assert? Yes, sounds a bit strange but bear with me! Many of m

Answer 1

Sorry, but you're attacking your problem the wrong way.

"assert" is the spawn of the devil (a.k.a. "C") and is useless with any language that has proper exceptions. It's waaaaaay better to reimplement an assert-like functionality with exceptions. This way you actually get a chance of handling errors the right way (incl proper cleanup procedures) or triggering them at will (for unit testing).

Besides, if your code ever runs in Windows, when you fail an assertion you get a useless popup offering you to debug/abort/retry. Nice for automated unit tests.

So do yourself a favor and re-code an assert function that throws exceptions. There's one here: How can I assert() without using abort()?

Wrap it in a macro so you get _ _FILE _ _ and _ _ LINE _ _ (useful for debug) and you're done.