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Zac Hatfield-Dodds - Escape from auto-manual te...

Zac Hatfield-Dodds - Escape from auto-manual testing with Hypothesis!

If we knew all of the bugs we needed to write tests for, wouldn't we just... not write the bugs? So how can testing find bugs that nobody would think of?

The answer is to have a computer write your tests for you! You declare what kind of input should work - from 'an integer' to 'matching this regex' to 'this Django model' and write a test which should always pass... then Hypothesis searches for the smallest inputs that cause an error.

If you’ve ever written tests that didn't find all your bugs, this talk is for you. We'll cover the theory of property-based testing, a worked example, and then jump into a whirlwind tour of the library: how to use, define, compose, and infer strategies for input; properties and testing tactics for your code; and how to debug your tests if everything seems to go wrong.

By the end of this talk, you'll be ready to find real bugs with Hypothesis in anything from web apps to big data pipelines to CPython itself. Be the change you want to see in your codebase - or contribute to Hypothesis itself and help drag the world kicking and screaming into a new and terrifying age of high quality software!

https://us.pycon.org/2019/schedule/presentation/217/

PyCon 2019

May 05, 2019
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  1. Design for testability • Immutable data • Canonical formats •

    Well-defined interfaces • Separate IO and computation logic • Explicit arguments for all dependencies • Deterministic behaviour • Lots of assertions PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 5
  2. What’s a assertion? “an expression in a program which is

    always true unless there is a bug.” http://wiki.c2.com/?WhatAreAssertions PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 6
  3. Where do tests come from? • Specifying behaviour in advance

    • Checking new features • Defending against possible bugs – Stopping old bugs from coming back PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 7
  4. What should a test do? • “arrange, act, assert” •

    “given, when, then” • Execute the “system under test” • Fail if and only if a bug is introduced PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 8
  5. How big should a test be? Kent C. Dodds Martin

    Fowler PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 9
  6. Ok, but what are we testing? • Anything we can

    observe from code – Input and output data – Actions after a command – Performance (tricky) …usually by turning it into input/output data • User-relevant behaviour, so that our code reliably does what it needs to. PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 10
  7. Other kinds of tests • Diff tests – Does new

    version reproduce known output? • Mutation tests – Add bugs to check they’re detected by tests • Doctests – Check that examples in docs still work • Coverage tests – Find unexecuted (i.e. untested) parts of your code – Please never use percent coverage! PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 11
  8. Property-based testing • User: – Describes valid inputs – Writes

    a test that passes for any valid input • Engine: – Generates many test cases – Runs your test for each input – Reports minimal failing inputs (usually) PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 13
  9. from hypothesis import given, strategies as st @given( st.lists(st.integers(), min_size=1)

    ) def test_a_sort_function(ls): # we can compare to a trusted implementation, assert dubious_sort(ls) == sorted(ls) # or check the properties we need directly. assert Counter(out) == Counter(ls) assert all(a<=b for a, b in zip(out, out[1:])) PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 14
  10. hypothesis.strategies • Describes inputs for @given to generate • Only

    construct strategies via the public API – SearchStrategy type is only public for type hints – Composing factories is nicer anyway! PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 16
  11. Values • Simplest strategies are for values – None, bools,

    numbers, Unicode or binary strings… • Finer-grained than types – Optional bounds for value or length – Arguments like allow_nan or timezones PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 17
  12. Collections • Lists, sets, dicts, iterables, etc. – Take a

    strategy for elements (or keys/values) – Optional min_size and max_size PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 18
  13. Map and Filter methods s.map(f) - applies function f to

    example - shrinks before mapping s.filter(f) - retry unless f(ex) - mostly for edge cases s = integers() s.map(str) # strings of digits # even integers s.map(lambda x: x * 2) # odd ints, slowly s.filter(lambda x: x % 2) # Lists with some unique numbers lists(s, 2).filter( lambda x: len(set(x)) >=2 ) PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 19
  14. Complicated data • Got a list of values? – sampled_from

    or permutations can help • Recursive strategies just work – At least three ways to define them • Combine strategies: – integers() | text() – Can’t take intersection though. • Call anything with builds() PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 20
  15. Inferring strategies A schema is a machine-readable description: • Used

    for validating input • Can generate input instead! This tests both validation and logic. regex, array dtype, django model, attrs classes, type hints, database… >>> from_regex(r'^[A-Z]\w+$') 'Fgjdfas' 'D榙譞Ć츩\n' >>> from_dtype('f4,f4,f4') (-9.00713e+15, 1.19209e-07, nan) (0.5, 0.0, -1.9) >>> def f(a: int): return str(a) >>> builds(f) '20091' '-507' PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 21
  16. Beyond the standard library • hypothesis.extra – Django, Numpy, Pandas,

    Lark, pytz, dateutil… • Also many third-party extensions, e.g. – Geojson, SQLAlchemy, networkx, jsonschema, Lollipop, Mongoengine, protobuf… PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 22
  17. Inline st.data() • Draw more data within the test function

    – Great for complex or stateful systems – Use @st.composite instead if you can @given(st.data()) def a_test(data): x = data.draw(integers(0, 100), label="First number") y = data.draw(integers(x, 100), label="Second number") # Do something with `x` and `y` PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 23
  18. Tactics: what do we test? • “Auto-manual” testing – output

    == expected • Oracle tests (full specification) – Does a magic “oracle” function say output is OK? • Partial specification – Can identify some but not all failures • Metamorphic testing • Hyper-properties PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 25
  19. Oracles • Fantastic for refactoring or testing performance optimisations •

    “reverse oracles” – Generate an answer, ask the oracle for a matching question, test that code gets the answer • You may need to test the Oracle too PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 26
  20. Special-case oracles • If your oracle only works for some

    valid inputs, that’s still useful to test those inputs • Or a more precise test for a subset of inputs – Monotonic functions, positive numbers, etc. – Varying just one parameter to simplify results PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 27
  21. Partial specification • We don’t need an exact answer for

    tests! – min(xs) <= mean(xs) <= max(xs) • Lots of serialisation specs are like this – In fact almost all specs are partial PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 28
  22. Common properties • Shared by lots of code – Often

    good API design generally – Or worth it just for testability PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 29
  23. “Does not crash” • Just call your function with valid

    input: @given(lists(integers())) def test_fuzz_max(xs): max(xs) # no assertions in the test! • This is embarrassingly effective. PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 30
  24. Round-trips “inverse functions” • add / subtract • json.dumps /

    json.loads or just related: • factorize / multiply • set_x / get_x • list.append / list.index PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 32
  25. Untestable or annoying? • No other way to get the

    answer – Black boxes – Simulations of complicated systems – Machine learning • Code with lots of state – i.e. not a function with input and output – Includes networking, databases, etc. PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 34
  26. Metamor-whatsit? • We don’t know how input relates to output

    • BUT – Given an input and corresponding output – Make a known change to the input – We might know how the output should change (or not change) • That’s it – but this is really, really powerful PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 36
  27. RESTful APIs • Who knows what a query should return?

    – Adding a search term should give fewer results – The number of results should not change depending on pagination: spotify/web-api#225 – Plus standard properties from before • update then get, delete then can’t get, etc. PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 37
  28. Neural Networks • State of the art of NN testing

    is terrible – Embed lots of assertions – Use simple properties across single steps • Testing things like… – Training steps change neuron weights – Bounds on inputs and outputs – Converges when expected to PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 39
  29. Most software has state • [citation needed] – FP is

    the study of getting around this problem – Networks are stateful. Databases are stateful. – The world has state, so your code needs it too • Is this a problem for generative testing? – Nope! – We just need to represent things properly… PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 41
  30. (non)deterministic finite automata • A nice formalism – The automata

    has some internal state – Which actions are valid depends on the state – There’s a special starting state • Sound familiar? – Regular expressions are all DFAs* – We can model finite automata as classes PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 42
  31. RuleBasedStateMachine from hypothesis.stateful import RuleBasedStateMachine, rule, precondition class NumberModifier(RuleBasedStateMachine): num

    = 0 @rule(n=integers()) def add_n(self, n): self.num += n @precondition(lambda self: self.num != 0) @rule() def divide_with_one(self): self.num = 1 / self.num PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 43
  32. PERFORMANCE, CONFIGURATION, AND COMMUNITY In which we discuss all the

    other things that you might want to know. PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 44
  33. Observability --hypothesis-show-statistics – Shows timing stats, perf breakdown, exit reasons

    – Add custom entries by calling event() in a test • Use note() if you like print-debugging – Only prints for minimal failing example – Details controlled by verbosity setting PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 45
  34. Performance (generation) • All pretty obvious in generation phase: –

    Calling slow things or many things is slow – Generating larger data takes longer – Filter more, and getting output takes longer • Otherwise Hypothesis is pretty fast! PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 46
  35. Performance (shrinking) • Composition of shrinking – If any part

    shrinks, the whole should shrink – Order of recursive terms is important! • Keep things local – Put filters (or assume) as far in as possible – Avoid drawing a size, then that many things • Don’t waste more tuning than you save! PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 47
  36. Configuration • hypothesis.settings • Per-test decorator or whole-suite profiles •

    Lots of options – deadline, max_examples, report_multiple_bugs, database, etc. PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 48
  37. Reproducing failures • Hypothesis tests should never be flaky. –

    We detect most user-caused flakiness too • Failures cached and retried until fixed – for local dev, reproducibility is automatic • Printed seed to re-run failures from CI • Explicit decorator for really tough cases PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 49
  38. Update early & often! • Hypothesis releases every pull request.

    – All bug fixes are available in ~30 minutes – As are features, performance improvements, … – We use strict semver and code review – (and have a fantastic test suite ) • So stay up to date – for your own sake! PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 50
  39. Who uses Hypothesis? • 4% of all Pythonistas (PSF survey)

    • Many companies • ~2000 open source projects (github stats) • Blockchain! (sigh) PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 51
  40. Consulting Services • Want exciting new features? • Want Hypothesis

    training for your team? • Want your tests (and code) reviewed? • Zac Hatfield-Dodds and David MacIver – Say hi via [email protected] PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 52
  41. About the project • MPL-2.0 license • New contributors welcome!

    – most remaining issues are non-trivial – using or extending Hypothesis is valued too • Tries to be legible – we design APIs and errors to teach users – does what you expect; or explains why not PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 53
  42. When I don’t use Hypothesis • Checking that invalid things

    are invalid • When I have a comprehensive corpus – Though I might use Hypothesis too… • For very slow tests • Checking rare edge cases – But consider @example to share test function PyCon 2019 Zac Hatfield-Dodds 54