MutableLiveData is null in JUnitTest

Question

I want to write a unit test. Therefore I need MutableLiveData. I started with a very basic test for setup but I cannot instantiate a MutableLiveData object. I is always null when I run the test. Do I have to mock anything? Any suggestions?

@RunWith(MockitoJUnitRunner.class)
public class DefaultLiveDataTest {

    private static final int EXPECTED = 5;

    private final MutableLiveData<Integer> underTest = new MutableLiveData<>();


    @Test
    public void exampleTest() {

    underTest.setValue(EXPECTED); //underTest is Null
    assertEquals(underTest.getValue().intValue(), EXPECTED);

    }
}

java.lang.NullPointerException
at android.arch.core.executor.DefaultTaskExecutor.isMainThread(DefaultTaskExecutor.java:58)
at android.arch.core.executor.ArchTaskExecutor.isMainThread(ArchTaskExecutor.java:116)
at android.arch.lifecycle.LiveData.assertMainThread(LiveData.java:434)
at android.arch.lifecycle.LiveData.setValue(LiveData.java:279)
at android.arch.lifecycle.MutableLiveData.setValue(MutableLiveData.java:33)
at com.mypackage.DefaultLiveDataTest.test_that_live_data_has_default_value(DefaultLiveDataTest.java:22)

build.gradle

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'

android {
compileSdkVersion 27
defaultConfig {
    applicationId 'com.mypackage.title'
    minSdkVersion 16
    targetSdkVersion 27
    versionCode 1
    versionName '1.0'
    testInstrumentationRunner 'android.support.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner'
}

testOptions {
    unitTests.returnDefaultValues = true
}

dependencies {
implementation fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
implementation 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:27.1.1'
implementation 'com.android.support:design:27.1.1'
implementation 'com.android.support.constraint:constraint-layout:1.0.2'
implementation 'com.android.support:support-vector-drawable:27.1.1'
implementation 'android.arch.lifecycle:extensions:1.1.1'
implementation 'android.arch.lifecycle:viewmodel:1.1.1'
implementation 'android.arch.lifecycle:livedata:1.1.1'

annotationProcessor 'android.arch.lifecycle:compiler:1.1.1'
testImplementation 'junit:junit:4.12'
testImplementation 'org.mockito:mockito-core:1.10.19'
androidTestImplementation 'com.android.support.test:runner:1.0.1'
androidTestImplementation 'com.android.support.test.espresso:espresso-core:3.0.1'
annotationProcessor 'org.androidannotations:androidannotations:4.4.0'
implementation 'org.androidannotations:androidannotations-api:4.4.0'
compileOnly 'org.projectlombok:lombok:1.16.20'
annotationProcessor 'org.projectlombok:lombok:1.16.20'
}

Answer 1

Looks like you are missing the android.arch.core:core-testing dependency.

testImplementation "android.arch.core:core-testing:1.1.1"

This allows you to use the InstantTaskExecutorRule in your test, which will get rid of the isMainThread call.

https://developer.android.com/reference/android/arch/core/executor/testing/InstantTaskExecutorRule.html

@Rule
public InstantTaskExecutorRule instantTaskExecutorRule = new InstantTaskExecutorRule();