DEV Community

Discussion on: Should I test initialize?

Collapse
 
databasesponge profile image
MetaDave 🇪🇺

I would definitely highlight the issue of complex initialisers being questionable. The purpose of the initialiser is surely to set instance variables, and I would see anything else that it does as a code smell.

That reduces the initialiser to setting instance variables, and the values of those instance variables may not by themselves be publicly available.

Furthermore, if you test an initialiser it seems to me that you should be testing an interface between your class and the rest of the code base, and it is generally that interfacing action that should be the subject of the test.