How to android unit test and mock a static method

Question

Hi I really hope you can help me, I feel like I\'ve been pulling my hair out for days.

I\'m trying to write unit tests for a method A. Method A calls a static method

Answer 1

Static methods aren't related to any object - your helper.fetchUsernameFromInternet(...) is the same (but a bit confusing) as HelperUtils.fetchUsernameFromInternet(...) - you should even get a compiler warning due to this helper.fetchUsernameFromInternet.

What's more, instead of Mockito.mock to mock static methods you have to use: @RunWith(...), @PrepareForTest(...) and then PowerMockito.mockStatic(...) - complete example is here: PowerMockito mock single static method and return object

In other words - mocking static methods (and also constructors) is a bit tricky. Better solution is:

• if you can change HelperUtils, make that method non-static and now you can mock HelperUtils with the usual Mockito.mock

• if you can't change HelperUtils, create a wrapper class which delegates to the original HelperUtils, but doesn't have static methods, and then also use usual Mockito.mock (this idea is sometimes called "don't mock types you don't own")