25 Mar 2017 • Least effort unit tests

I wanted a C++ unit testing library that isn't gigantic and impossible to understand, doesn't blow up compile times, doesn't need much boilerplate, doesn't put the testing code miles from the code being tested, and doesn't have its own silly build requirements that make it a huge pain in the ass to use. Unfortunately all the C++ testing libraries are either gigantic awful monoliths (e.g. googletest), or tiny C libraries that are a little too inconvenient to actually use (e.g. minunit).

Ideally it wouldn't give you awful compiler errors when you get it wrong but that's probably impossible.

Behold:

#pragma once

#if defined( UNITTESTS )

#include <stdio.h>

#define CONCAT_HELPER( a, b ) a##b
#define CONCAT( a, b ) CONCAT_HELPER( a, b )
#define COUNTER_NAME( x ) CONCAT( x, __COUNTER__ )

#define AT_STARTUP( code ) \
	namespace COUNTER_NAME( StartupCode ) { \
		static struct AtStartup { \
			AtStartup() { code; } \
		} AtStartupInstance; \
	}

#define UNITTEST( name, body ) \
	namespace { \
		AT_STARTUP( \
			int passed = 0; \
			int failed = 0; \
			puts( name ); \
			body; \
			printf( "%d passed, %d failed\n\n", passed, failed ); \
		) \
	}

#define TEST( p ) \
	if( !( p ) ) { \
		failed++; \
		puts( "    FAIL: " #p ); \
	} \
	else { \
		passed++; \
	}

#define private public
#define protected public

#else

#define UNITTEST( name, body )
#define TEST( p )

#endif

It uses the nifty cinit constructor trick to run your tests before main, and you can dump UNITTESTs anywhere you like (at global scope). Example usage:

#include <stdio.h>
#define UNITTESTS // -DUNITTESTS, etc
#include "ggunit.h"

int main() {
	printf( "main\n" );
	return 0;
}

UNITTEST( "testing some easy stuff", {
	TEST( 1 == 1 );
	TEST( 1 == 2 );
} );

UNITTEST( "testing some more easy stuff", {
	for( size_t i = 0; i <= 10; i++ ) {
		TEST( i < 10 );
	}
} );

which prints:

testing some easy stuff
    FAIL: 1 == 2
1 passed, 1 failed

testing some more easy stuff
    FAIL: i < 10
10 passed, 1 failed

hello

It would be great if you could put UNITTESTs in the middle of classes etc to test private functionality, but you can't and the simplest workaround is #define private/protected public. Super cheesy but it works. It's not perfect but it works. It's ugly. It's not a Theoretically Awesome Injection Framework Blah Blah. It works and is two lines, you can't beat it.

2024 update: Carmack approved lol