Test Smell: Irrelevant Details

Distractions

Although we want to turn off logging when tests run, the code to do so is a distraction to understanding the essence of any test. Though we should always close streams, doing so is also a distraction.

Using @After and @Before methods

To remedy this issue, let’s move the bits of clutter to @Before and @After methods. To allow both tests to take advantage of the stream.close() in the @After method, change the second test to reference the stream field instead of the local variable named inputStream.

We should also look at the line that reads:

We also ponder the line that reads:

assertFalse(search.errored()); 

The above assertion isn’t an irrelevant detail since it’s a valid assertion. We might consider it as a second postcondition of running a search, but it hints at something deeper. Namely, it prompts us to ask where is the test case that generates a true value for search.errored()? Delete the assertion and make a note to add a third (and maybe also a fourth) test before committing.

Challenge

Here are the decluttering changes:

• Add the following @Before in the code (lines 15-18).

@Before
public void turnOffLogging() {
   Search.LOGGER.setLevel(Level.OFF);
}

• Add the following @After in the code (lines 20-23).

@After
public void closeResources() throws IOException {
   stream.close();
}