Use unit-testing framework in matlab to test data

Question

I would like to test datasets with a variable number of values. Each value should be tested and I would like to have a standardized output that I can read in afterward again. My used framework is Matlab.

Example:
The use case would be a dataset which includes, e.g., 14 values that need to be testet. The comparison is already completely handled by my implementation. So I have 14 values, which I would like to compare against some tolerance or similar and get an output like

1..14
ok value1
ok value2
not ok value3
...
ok value14

Current solution:
I try to use the unit-testing framework and the according TAPPlugin that would produce exactly such an output (tap), one for every unit-test. My main problem is that the unit-testing framework does not take any input parameters. I already read about parametrization, but I do not know how this helps me. I could put the values as a list into the parameter, but how to I pass them there? Afaik the unit-test class does not allow additional parameters during initialization, so I cannot include this in the program the way I want.

I would like to avoid to need to format the TAP output on my own, because it is already there, but only for unit-test objects. Unfortunately, I cannot see how to implement this wisely.

How can I implement the output of a test anything protocol where I have a variable amount of comparisons (values) in Matlab?

Answer 1

If you are using class based unit tests you could access its properties from outside the test.

So let's say you have following unit test:

classdef MyTestCase < matlab.unittest.TestCase

properties
    property1 = false;
end

methods(Test) 
    function test1(testCase)
       verifyTrue(testCase,testCase.property1) 
    end
end

You could access and change properties from outside:

test=MyTestCase; 
MyTestCase.property1 = true;
MyTestCase.run; 

This should no succeed since you changed from false to true. If you want to have a more flexible way, you could have a list with the variables and a list with the requirements and then cycle through both in one of the test functions.

properties
    variables = [];
    requirements = [];
end

methods(Test) 
   function test1(testCase)
      for i = 1:length(variables):
         verifyEqual(testCase,testCase.variables[i],testCase.requirements [i]) 
      end
   end
end

Now you would set variables and requirements:

test=MyTestCase; 
MyTestCase.variables = [1,2,3,4,5,6];
MyTestCase.requirements = [1,3,4,5,5,6];
MyTestCase.run; 

Please note, that in theory you should not have multiple assert statements in one test.