Mocking Static Blocks in Java

Question

My motto for Java is \"just because Java has static blocks, it doesn\'t mean that you should be using them.\" Jokes aside, there are a lot of tricks in Java that make testing a

Answer 1

When I run into this problem, I usually do the same thing you describe, except I make the static method protected so I can invoke it manually. On top of this, I make sure that the method can be invoked multiple times without problems (otherwise it is no better than the static initializer as far as the tests go).

This works reasonably well, and I can actually test that the static initializer method does what I expect/want it to do. Sometimes it is just easiest to have some static initialization code, and it just isn't worth it to build an overly complex system to replace it.

When I use this mechanism, I make sure to document that the protected method is only exposed for testing purposes, with the hopes that it won't be used by other developers. This of course may not be a viable solution, for example if the class' interface is externally visible (either as a sub-component of some kind for other teams, or as a public framework). It is a simple solution to the problem though, and doesn't require a third party library to set up (which I like).