Python unit test with base and sub class

Question

I currently have a few unit tests which share a common set of tests. Here\'s an example:

import unittest

class BaseTest(unittest.TestCase):

    def testCo         


        

Answer 1

Here is a solution that uses only documented unittest features an that avoids having a "skip" status in your test results:

class BaseTest(unittest.TestCase):

    def __init__(self, methodName='runTest'):
        if self.__class__ is BaseTest:
            # don't run these tests in the abstract base implementation
            methodName = 'runNoTestsInBaseClass'
        super().__init__(methodName)

    def runNoTestsInBaseClass(self):
        pass

    def testCommon(self):
        # everything else as in the original question

How it works: per the unittest.TestCase documentation, "Each instance of TestCase will run a single base method: the method named methodName." The default "runTests" runs all the test* methods on the class—that's how TestCase instances normally work. But when running in the abstract base class itself, you can simply override that behavior with a method that does nothing.

A side effect is your test count will increase by one: the runNoTestsInBaseClass "test" gets counted as a successful test when it's run on BaseClass.

(This also works in Python 2.7, if you're still on that. Just change super() to super(BaseTest, self).)