Skipping Tests

Summary: in this tutorial, you’ll learn how to skip tests using the Python unittest module.

The unittest module allows you to skip a test method or a test class. To skip a test, you have three available options:

• Use the @unittest.skip() decorator.
• Call the skipTest() method of the TestCase class.
• Raise the SkipTest exception.

Skipping a test method examples #

The following example uses the @unittest.skip() decorator to skip the test_case_2() method unconditionally:

import unittest


class TestDemo(unittest.TestCase):
    def test_case_1(self):
        self.assertEqual(1+1, 2)

    @unittest.skip('Work in progress')
    def test_case_2(self):
        passCode language: Python (python)

Run the test:

python -m unittest -vCode language: Python (python)

Output:

test_case_1 (test_skipping.TestDemo) ... ok
test_case_2 (test_skipping.TestDemo) ... skipped 'Work in progress'

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 2 tests in 0.001s

OK (skipped=1)Code language: Python (python)

The output shows that two tests were executed and one was skipped. For the skipped test, the output shows the message that we passed to the @unittest.skip() decorator.

Similarly, you can call the skipTest() in a test method to skip it:

import unittest


class TestDemo(unittest.TestCase):
    def test_case_1(self):
        self.assertEqual(1+1, 2)

    def test_case_2(self):
        self.skipTest('Work in progress')Code language: Python (python)

Run the test:

python -m unittest -vCode language: Python (python)

Output:

test_case_1 (test_skipping.TestDemo) ... ok
test_case_2 (test_skipping.TestDemo) ... skipped 'Work in progress'

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 2 tests in 0.001s

OK (skipped=1)Code language: Python (python)

Also, you can raise the SkipTest exception in a test method to skip it.

import unittest


class TestDemo(unittest.TestCase):
    def test_case_1(self):
        self.assertEqual(1+1, 2)

    def test_case_2(self):
        raise unittest.SkipTest('Work in progress')Code language: Python (python)

Run the test:

python -m unittest -vCode language: Python (python)

Output:

test_case_1 (test_skipping.TestDemo) ... ok
test_case_2 (test_skipping.TestDemo) ... skipped 'Work in progress'

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 2 tests in 0.001s

OK (skipped=1)Code language: Python (python)

Skipping a test class examples #

To skip a test class, you use the@unittest.skip() decorator at the class level.

The following example uses the @unittest.skip() decorator at the class level. Hence, all tests of the TestDemo class are skipped:

import unittest


@unittest.skip('Work in progress')
class TestDemo(unittest.TestCase):
    def test_case_1(self):
        self.assertEqual(1+1, 2)

    def test_case_2(self):
        self.assertIsNotNone([])Code language: Python (python)

Run the test:

python -m unittest -vCode language: Python (python)

Output:

test_case_1 (test_skipping.TestDemo) ... skipped 'Work in progress'
test_case_2 (test_skipping.TestDemo) ... skipped 'Work in progress'

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 2 tests in 0.000s

OK (skipped=2)Code language: Python (python)

Skipping a test with a condition #

Sometimes, you want to skip a test conditionally. For example, you may want to skip a test if the current platform, where the test is running, is windows.

To do that you use the @unittest.skipIf() decorator:

@unittest.skipIf(condition, reason)Code language: Python (python)

This will skip the test if the condition is true. Also, it’ll display the reason for skipping the test in the test result.

For example:

import unittest

from sys import platform


class TestDemo(unittest.TestCase):
    def test_case_1(self):
        self.assertEqual(1+1, 2)

    @unittest.skipIf(platform.startswith("win"), "Do not run on Windows")
    def test_case_2(self):
        self.assertIsNotNone([])Code language: Python (python)

In this example, we skip the test_case_2() method if the current platform is windows. To get the current platform where the test is running, we use the sys.platform property.

Run the test:

python -m unittest -vCode language: Python (python)

Output:

test_case_1 (test_skipping.TestDemo) ... ok
test_case_2 (test_skipping.TestDemo) ... skipped 'Do not run on Windows'

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 2 tests in 0.001s

OK (skipped=1)Code language: Python (python)

Unlike the @unittest.skipIf decorator, the @unittest.skipUnless skips a test uncles a condition is true:

@unittest.skipUnless(condition, reason)Code language: Python (python)

Summary #

• Use the @unittest.skip() decorator, skipTest() method, or raise SkipTest exception to skip a test.
• Use the @unittest.skipIf() or @unittest.skipUnless() to skip a test conditionally.