How do I concisely implement multiple similar unit tests in the Python unittest framework?

Question

I\'m implementing unit tests for a family of functions that all share a number of invariants. For example, calling the function with two matrices produce a matrix of known s

Answer 1

Here's my favorite approach to the "family of related tests". I like explicit subclasses of a TestCase that expresses the common features.

class MyTestF1( unittest.TestCase ):
    theFunction= staticmethod( f1 )
    def setUp(self):
        self.matrix1 = numpy.ones((5,10))
        self.matrix2 = numpy.identity(5)
    def testOutputShape( self ):
        """Output of functions be of a certain shape"""
        output = self.theFunction(self.matrix1, self.matrix2)
        fail_message = "%s produces output of the wrong shape" % (self.theFunction.__name__,)
        self.assertEqual(self.matrix1.shape, output.shape, fail_message)

class TestF2( MyTestF1 ):
    """Includes ALL of TestF1 tests, plus a new test."""
    theFunction= staticmethod( f2 )
    def testUniqueFeature( self ):
         # blah blah blah
         pass

class TestF3( MyTestF1 ):
    """Includes ALL of TestF1 tests with no additional code."""
    theFunction= staticmethod( f3 )

Add a function, add a subclass of MyTestF1. Each subclass of MyTestF1 includes all of the tests in MyTestF1 with no duplicated code of any kind.

Unique features are handled in an obvious way. New methods are added to the subclass.

It's completely compatible with unittest.main()