Python Mocking with unitest.mock

External

• https://docs.python.org/3/library/unittest.mock.html#module-unittest.mock

Internal

• unittest Module

Overview

The unittest.mock library allows replacing parts of the system under test with mock objects and make assertion about how they are accessed and used.

Mock

https://docs.python.org/3/library/unittest.mock.html#unittest.mock.Mock

By default, a Mock accept any invocations into it.

MagicMock

Difference between Mock and MagicMock.

TODEPLETE

https://realpython.com/python-mock-library/

Mocking

To mock a class and a method of that class:

from unittest.mock import Mock


class SomeClass:
    def __init__(self, state):
        self.state = state

    def some_method(self):
        return self.state


sc = SomeClass('A')
assert 'A' == sc.some_method()

sc_mock = Mock(SomeClass)
sc_mock.some_method = Mock(return_value='blah')

assert 'blah' == sc_mock.some_method()

How to simulate different return values for a mocked function depending on an argument value?

Mocking a Property

https://docs.python.org/3/library/unittest.mock.html#unittest.mock.PropertyMock

Tested to work:

from unittest.mock import patch, PropertyMock

class A:
    @property
    def property_a(self):
        return "pa"

with patch('__main__.A.property_a', new_callable=PropertyMock) as mock_property:
    mock_property.return_value = 'mocked pa'
    a = A()
    assert a.property_a == 'mocked pa'

Mocking a Method

from unittest.mock import patch

class A:
    def method_a(self):
        return "ma"

with patch.object(A, 'method_a', return_value='mocked ma') as mock_method:
    a = A()
    assert a.method_a() == 'mocked ma'

Mocking a Function of a Module

Use patch() as a context manager. Inside the with statement, the `target` (the first argument of patch()) is patched with a `new` object. When the with statement exits, the patch is undone. If the 'new' is committed, the target is replaced with a MagicMock, and the created mock is returned by the context manager.

Asserting Invocations on Mock

mock.assert_called_once_with(
  "some concrete arg 1", 
  unittest.mock.ANY)

TO further document: https://docs.python.org/3/library/unittest.mock.html#unittest.mock.ANY

mock = ...
mock.call_count # return the number of times the mock was called into, as an int

call_args_list

mock = ...
mock.call_args_list

call_args_list is a list of call arguments for all calls that were made on the mock. The list length is equal with mock.call_count

Call arguments for each call can be obtained with the index operator []:

args_for_first_call = mock.call_args_list[0]
args_for_second_call = mock.call_args_list[1]
...

Positional arguments are maintained in a tuple and can be obtained with the args property. It returns a tuple, which may be empty:

mock.call_args_list[0].args

Named arguments are maintained in a dictionary, which can be obtained with the kwargs property. It returns a dictionary, which may be empty:

mock.call_args_list[0].kwargs
mock.call_args_list[0].kwargs['some_arg']