Using python's mock patch.object to change the return value of a method called within another method

Question

Is it possible to mock a return value of a function called within another function I am trying to test? I would like the mocked method (which will be called in many methods

Answer 1

Let me clarify what you're talking about: you want to test Foo in a testcase, which calls external method uses_some_other_method. Instead of calling the actual method, you want to mock the return value.

class Foo:
    def method_1():
       results = uses_some_other_method()
    def method_n():
       results = uses_some_other_method()

Suppose the above code is in foo.py and uses_some_other_method is defined in module bar.py. Here is the unittest:

import unittest
import mock

from foo import Foo


class TestFoo(unittest.TestCase):

    def setup(self):
        self.foo = Foo()

    @mock.patch('foo.uses_some_other_method')
    def test_method_1(self, mock_method):
        mock_method.return_value = 3
        self.foo.method_1(*args, **kwargs)

        mock_method.assert_called_with(*args, **kwargs)

If you want to change the return value every time you passed in different arguments, mock provides side_effect.