rustkas

rustkas

Property-Based Testing with PropEr, Erlang, and Elixir:the order of the elements in the comparison expression(page 53)

I’m wondering why you chose the following sequence in your expression:
Function under test =:= reference expression

prop_biggest() ->
    ?FORALL(List, (list(integer())),
            begin
                biggest(List) =:= lists:last(lists:sort(List))
            end).

EUnit macros using assertEqual(Expect, Expr), whehe EUnit uses the opposite order of items.

biggest_test() ->
 ?assert(5 =:= biggest([1, 2, 3, 4, 5])),
 ?assert(8 =:= biggest([3, 8, 7, -1])),
 ?assert(0 =:= biggest([0])), 
 ?assert(5 =:= biggest([-10, 5, -901])).

I understand that the order of the elements doesn’t matter. When you proposed your order, what were you guided by, what were your motives?

Marked As Solved

ferd

ferd

Author of Property-Based Testing with PropEr, LYSE, & Erlang in Anger

That’s an interesting question. I don’t think it’s a super conscious choice, but I tend to use the order of other assertion macros, where for example the format is ?assertMatch(Pattern, Expression) (this is the only one where it’s very sensitive, otherwise you just get the expected/actual order reversed in a report).

I think this, along with pattern matching generally having the assertion left-side, makes me compare that way. For example, many years ago, before people used EUnit macro in common test, the pattern for assertions would have just been Expected = lists:last(lists:sort(List)), Expected = biggest(List) and then letting the est crash if it’s wrong.

In this case, I appear to have swapped the order with what I generally use or would suggest to use, since the model should be driving the test!

Where Next?

Popular Pragmatic Bookshelf topics Top

ianwillie
Hello Brian, I have some problems with running the code in your book. I like the style of the book very much and I have learnt a lot as...
New
mikecargal
Title: Hands-On Rust (Chapter 11: prefab) Just played a couple of amulet-less games. With a bit of debugging, I believe that your can_p...
New
mikecargal
Title: Hands-on Rust: question about get_component (page 295) (feel free to respond. “You dug you’re own hole… good luck”) I have somet...
New
JohnS
I can’t setup the Rails source code. This happens in a working directory containing multiple (postgres) Rails apps. With: ruby-3.0.0 s...
New
cro
I am working on the “Your Turn” for chapter one and building out the restart button talked about on page 27. It recommends looking into ...
New
rmurray10127
Title: Intuitive Python: docker run… denied error (page 2) Attempted to run the docker command in both CLI and Powershell PS C:\Users\r...
New
leba0495
Hello! Thanks for the great book. I was attempting the Trie (chap 17) exercises and for number 4 the solution provided for the autocorre...
New
jskubick
I’m under the impression that when the reader gets to page 136 (“View Data with the Database Inspector”), the code SHOULD be able to buil...
New
EdBorn
Title: Agile Web Development with Rails 7: (page 70) I am running windows 11 pro with rails 7.0.3 and ruby 3.1.2p20 (2022-04-12 revision...
New
dachristenson
I’ve got to the end of Ch. 11, and the app runs, with all tabs displaying what they should – at first. After switching around between St...
New

Other popular topics Top

AstonJ
What chair do you have while working… and why? Is there a ‘best’ type of chair or working position for developers?
New
New
AstonJ
Just done a fresh install of macOS Big Sur and on installing Erlang I am getting: asdf install erlang 23.1.2 Configure failed. checking ...
New
AstonJ
In case anyone else is wondering why Ruby 3 doesn’t show when you do asdf list-all ruby :man_facepalming: do this first: asdf plugin-upd...
New
AstonJ
If you are experiencing Rails console using 100% CPU on your dev machine, then updating your development and test gems might fix the issu...
New
Margaret
Hello everyone! This thread is to tell you about what authors from The Pragmatic Bookshelf are writing on Medium.
1147 28379 760
New
Maartz
Hi folks, I don’t know if I saw this here but, here’s a new programming language, called Roc Reminds me a bit of Elm and thus Haskell. ...
New
AstonJ
If you get Can't find emacs in your PATH when trying to install Doom Emacs on your Mac you… just… need to install Emacs first! :lol: bre...
New
DevotionGeo
I have always used antique keyboards like Cherry MX 1800 or Cherry MX 8100 and almost always have modified the switches in some way, like...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Explore the power of Ash Framework by modeling and building the domain for a real-world web application. Rebecca Le @sevenseacat and ...
New

Sub Categories: