Is there a way share TestParameter and ClassSetupParameter properties of unit test class?

Hello, I have a unit test class called testClass_ARIMA which has parametrized setup and tests methods. My class properties looks like this:

classdef testClass_ARIMA < matlab.unittest.TestCase

    properties (ClassSetupParameter)
        categorieClass=loadmat(1);
        classeClass=loadmat(2);
        sourceClass=loadmat(3);
        donneeRefClass=loadmat(4);
    end

    properties (TestParameter)
        categorieTest=loadmat(1);
        classeTest=loadmat(2);
        sourceTest=loadmat(3);
        donneeRefTest=loadmat(5);
    end

ClassSetupParameter and TestParameters properties are actually identical, but I had to give them different names since otherwise, the code does not run. So I wondered if there is a way to share the same properties between setup and tests methods? Because the problem is that since ClassSetupParameter and TestParameters are considered independant (artificially), when I want to build a test suit matlab tries every possible combination between ClassSetupParameter and TestParameters porperties but there is no need since they should be equal. Consequently, computation takes a lot of time, juste to calculate all possible combinations whoch most of them are useless.

Thanks!

Answer 1

[Andy Campbell]

Hi Yvan,

it sounds like you simply need access to the same parameters in a TestClassSetup as you do in one or more of your test methods right? The way to do this is to state these properties as ClassSetupParameters (only) and then within a TestClassSetup method you can assign them to another "normal" instance property of your test class and then you can access that property within your test method. This looks like the following:

classdef TestWithSharedParameters < matlab.unittest.TestCase
    %   
    properties(ClassSetupParameter)
        categorie=loadmat(1);
        classe=loadmat(2);
        source=loadmat(3);
        donneeRef=loadmat(4);
    end
    properties
        CurrentCategorie;
        CurrentClasse;
        CurrentSource;
        CurrentDonneeRef;
    end
    %
    methods(TestClassSetup)
        function doSomeSetup(testCase, categorie, classe, source, donneeRef)
            % Do your setup with categorie, classe, source, donneeRef
        end
        function assignClassParams(testCase, categorie, classe, source, donneeRef)
            testCase.CurrentCategorie = categorie;
            testCase.CurrentClasses = classe;
            testCase.CurrentSource = source;
            testCase.CurrentDonneeRef = donneeRef;
        end
    end
    %
    methods(Test)
        function testThatUsesClassParams(testCase)
            callFunctionUsingParams(...
                testCase.CurrentCategorie, ...
                testCase.CurrentClasses, ...
                testCase.CurrentSource, ...
                testCase.CurrentDonneeRef);
        end
    end
end

As you see you do need to use additional properties, but there are actually some good reasons for that. For one, TestParameters have different semantics than ClassSetupParameters and both of them have different semantics than normal instance properties. However, as you can see, you can always shared the properties across TestClassSetup methods using these instance properties. If you dont want to create another property per parameter you can also just add them to a struct and have a single property to communicate between methods, something like this:

classdef TestWithSharedParameters < matlab.unittest.TestCase

      properties(ClassSetupParameter)
          categorie=loadmat(1);
          classe=loadmat(2);
          source=loadmat(3);
          donneeRef=loadmat(4);
      end
      properties
          Params = struct;
      end
      %
      methods(TestClassSetup)
          function doSomeSetup(testCase, categorie, classe, source, donneeRef)
              % Do your setup with categorie, classe, source, donneeRef
          end
          function assignClassParams(testCase, categorie, classe, source, donneeRef)
              testCase.Params.categorie = categorie;
              testCase.Params.classes = classe;
              testCase.Params.source = source;
              testCase.Params.donneeRef = donneeRef;
          end
      end
      %
      methods(Test)
          function testThatUsesClassParams(testCase)
              callFunctionUsingParams(...
                  testCase.Params.categorie, ...
                  testCase.Params.classes, ...
                  testCase.Params.source, ...
                  testCase.Params.donneeRef);
          end
      end
  end

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

[Yvan Denis]

Yes! thanks! exactly what I've been looking for.

Thanks a lot!