I'm pretty new to Python. However, I am writing a script that loads some data from a file and generates another file. My script has several functions and it also needs two user inputs (paths) to work.
Now, I am wondering, if there is a way to test each function individually. Since there are no classes, I don't think I can do it with Unit tests, do I?
What is the common way to test a script, if I don't want to run the whole script all the time? Someone else has to maintain the script later. Therefore, something similar to unit tests would be awesome.
Thanks for your inputs!
If you write your code in the form of functions that operate on file objects (streams) or, if the data is small enough, that accept and return strings, you can easily write tests that feed the appropriate data and check the results. If the real data is large enough to need streams, but the test data is not, use the StringIO function in the test code to adapt.
Then use the __name__=="__main__" trick to allow your unit test driver to import the file without running the user-facing script.