How to use JUnit to test asynchronous processes

Question

How do you test methods that fire asynchronous processes with JUnit?

I don\'t know how to make my test wait for the process to end (it is not exactly a unit test, it

Answer 1

I prefer use wait and notify. It is simple and clear.

@Test
public void test() throws Throwable {
    final boolean[] asyncExecuted = {false};
    final Throwable[] asyncThrowable= {null};

    // do anything async
    new Thread(new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            try {
                // Put your test here.
                fail(); 
            }
            // lets inform the test thread that there is an error.
            catch (Throwable throwable){
                asyncThrowable[0] = throwable;
            }
            // ensure to release asyncExecuted in case of error.
            finally {
                synchronized (asyncExecuted){
                    asyncExecuted[0] = true;
                    asyncExecuted.notify();
                }
            }
        }
    }).start();

    // Waiting for the test is complete
    synchronized (asyncExecuted){
        while(!asyncExecuted[0]){
            asyncExecuted.wait();
        }
    }

    // get any async error, including exceptions and assertationErrors
    if(asyncThrowable[0] != null){
        throw asyncThrowable[0];
    }
}

Basically, we need to create a final Array reference, to be used inside of anonymous inner class. I would rather create a boolean[], because I can put a value to control if we need to wait(). When everything is done, we just release the asyncExecuted.