PEP8 naming convention on test classes

Question

I have been looking at PEP 8 -- Style Guide for Python Code and PEP8 -- Advanced Usage for clues on how to name my test classes. However, this is never mentioned on both sites, as well as many other sites I have looked at, such as the unittest page in the Python documentation. The only consistent style I see is "CapWords". In the unittest documentation they have examples for TestSequenceFunctions as well as DefaultWidgetSizeTestCase.

What I am trying to find out is whether to use "Name"Test or Test"Name". Methods use test_"name" and that's pretty much established. With regards to classes I am struggling to find a convention if there's one.

Would appreciate the forum's help on this.

score 28 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 28 '13 at 23:56

28

The documentation for unittest suggests, e.g.:

class TestSequenceFunctions(unittest.TestCase):

    def test_shuffle(self):
        ...

    def test_choice(self):
        ...

commenting

The three individual tests are defined with methods whose names start with the letters test. This naming convention informs the test runner about which methods represent tests.

answered Dec 28 '13 at 23:56

jonrsharpe

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Thanks. Tests themselves are not a problem because otherwise unittest won't pick them up. – musabaloyi Mar 27 '14 at 09:06
In 2021 (hello new year), [this](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unittest.html#basic-example) has not changed. – Timo Jan 01 '21 at 17:31

score 20 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 30 '13 at 19:11

20

Django and SQLAlchemy, two large, popular Python projects, both use "Name"Test(s). Personally, I prefer that to Test"Name", mainly because when there are multiple TestCases in a file, having each start with "Test" makes scanning difficult.

Not saying this equals a consensus, only two significant data points and a personal observation.

answered Dec 30 '13 at 19:11

Chris Lawlor

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1

Thanks. I do agree with your reasoning. – musabaloyi Mar 27 '14 at 09:06
1

I personally do this, and it's convenient for autocompleting things too. – turiyag Aug 09 '18 at 17:34
2

That's a good point, but if you list symbols in a module (`Ctrl+Shift+O` in VS Code), it's much easier to find the test cases if they're `test`-prefixed because these lists are typically alphabetically sorted. Most autocomplete algorithms don't require you to start typing names from the beginning anymore either. – natiiix Aug 05 '19 at 15:15

PEP8 naming convention on test classes

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