python mock import in imported module

Question

I'm trying to use unittest.mock to mock an import in a module under test.

What I'm seeing is that although my module calls sleep 5 times the mock object I'm interacting with in the test function isn't what I'm expecting.

I'm assuming I'm not doing something correctly. I did read the docs, but I'm sure I'm not doing this correctly.

"""example.py"""

import time


def mycode():
    time.sleep(10)
    time.sleep(10)
    time.sleep(10)
    time.sleep(10)
    time.sleep(10)

"""test_example.py"""

import example

from unittest.mock import patch


@patch("example.time.sleep")
def test_example(mock_time):
    example.mycode()
    assert mock_time.call_count == 5

Looks like a typo. You need `assert mock_time.sleep.call_count == 5` (you used `get` instead of `sleep`). — MrBean Bremen, Apr 23 '20 at 17:45
I changed the question to fix the error by refactoring and just mocking the sleep method. Can I mock the whole time object? — Brian, Apr 24 '20 at 00:19
Yes - I just tried it with your first version (with the correction), and it works fine for me. — MrBean Bremen, Apr 24 '20 at 04:40
tried it with @patch("example.time") ? not time.sleep? that doesn't seem to work for me and it doesn't mock time. can you show me what your running if you its working for you. — Brian, Apr 24 '20 at 10:47
I put my working test code into an answer - please check if you do the same. — MrBean Bremen, Apr 24 '20 at 11:50

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 24 '20 at 11:49

This is what works for me:

package/time_sleep.py

import time


def do_sleep():
    time.sleep(10)
    time.sleep(10)
    time.sleep(10)
    time.sleep(10)
    time.sleep(10)

test_time_sleep.py

from unittest.mock import patch

from package.time_sleep import do_sleep


@patch("package.time_sleep.time")
def test_sleep1(mock_time):
    do_sleep()
    assert mock_time.sleep.call_count == 5


@patch("package.time_sleep.time.sleep")
def test_sleep2(mock_sleep):
    do_sleep()
    assert mock_sleep.call_count == 5

This looks quite similar to your code (apart from the names).

python mock import in imported module

1 Answers1