How to Achieve Code Coverage for If/Else in PHPUnit?

Question

Disclaimer: I'm new to unit testing and just getting my feet wet. That being said, I understand 100% is not always possible, but I'm curious if there is a solution to code coverage with if/else statements such as this or if they are just untestable.

The function:

public function getAll() 
{

    // Query table for all rows sorted by name
    $select = $this->select();
    $select->order('name ASC');
    $rowset = $this->fetchAll($select);

    // Validate and return row
    if($rowset->current())
    {   
        // Return rowset
        return $rowset;
    }
    else { return false; }

}

The Unit Test

public function testCanGetAll()
{
    // Try to get all states
    $result = $this->model->getAll();
    $this->assertNotNull($result);
    $this->assertNotEquals(false,$result);
}

The Result

enter image description here

As you can see, I can't cover the return false; line. The only way I can think of to test it is to rename my database table or something drastic like that.

Is there another way to write functions with if/else statements (which are a fairly common practice) which allows for easier code coverage?

[EDIT] Perhaps it's better to not check results in the function, and just return it? Whatever calls this function has to do it's own checking?

public function getAll() 
{

    // Query table for all rows sorted by name
    $select = $this->select();
    $select->order('name ASC');
    $rowset = $this->fetchAll($select);

    // Return rowset whether valid or not
    return $rowset; 

}

j_mcnally · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-20 03:01:40Z

4

Create a db context where the result would return no rows, then in your second test method create a row in that db context.

Its usually not a good idea to test against your actual application's DB

you should be cloning it for your tests so that you can manipulate the data to test how the application will respond to varying data contexts.

--EDIT----

Following this guide may help: http://framework.zend.com/manual/ru/zend.test.phpunit.db.html

edited Feb 20, 2012 at 3:01

answered Feb 20, 2012 at 2:48

j_mcnally

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10 Comments

Jeremy Harris Over a year ago

That is easy for my functions like getByID() or getByName() where I can pass in a bad value and assert that way. But this takes no parameters and just returns all rows. In that instance, I have no context to modify. Also, my application is read-only and doesn't do any inserts/updates so I didn't see a need for cloning.

j_mcnally Over a year ago

you may want to refactor your code a little to make it more testable. How do you save your DB config? If you use a Singleton or static interface you could swap out what db to use. In an ideal situation you'd dump the structure and create a new database, then seed that database with predefined test records, and easily test with that by adding or removing rows.

Jeremy Harris Over a year ago

In this case, I'm using Zend Framework (PDO/MySQL). My models extend the Zend_Db_Table_Abstract object so they work similar to an ORM. Regardless, that's too specific and irrelevant. How can I refactor that to be testable?

j_mcnally Over a year ago

How do you configure which database your application should use?

j_mcnally Over a year ago

I know thats not the issue, i am saying you should not be using your production/development db for testing. You should have an empty db or a cloned db on which you can operate for testing. You should remove all the rows in the table your code tests, run your test, then add a row, and run your test. this will allow you to test both states of your example function.

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