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unit-testingmethodsfieldprivatespock

Why can test private methods/fields in Spock without problems?

package com.example.dev;
public class AClass {
 private Integer a =10;
...//other code
}

and when I try to access a in my Spock method:

package com.example.dev;
def 'test a'() {
 AClass aClassVar = new AClass()
 aClassVar.a = new Integer(100);
...//other testing stuff
}

It works fine. Why this happens? Is Spock use reflection for accessing the private fields? Or my encapsulation in not written well?

Solution

  • Spock isn't guilty, it's groovy itself, see: Private method in groovy is not private.

    While it's possible to refer to private members of class, it's definitely not a good practice.