Simplify enum testing with CaseIterative

In this post, I will show how to reduce the amount of code you have to type when testing enums, by using the new CaseIterable protocol.

Testing non-iterable enums

Consider this UserNotification enum and Notification.Name extension:

enum UserNotification: String {
    
    case
    didLogin,
    didLogout,
    loginStateDidChange
    
    var id: String {
        return "notifications.user.\(rawValue)"
    }
}

extension Notification.Name {
    
    static func user(_ notification: UserNotification) -> Notification.Name {
        return Notification.Name(rawValue: notification.id)
    }
}

Simple enough, right? Still, if we want to test this enum, we have to write much code to test all cases, for instance:

import Quick
import Nimble
import MyLibrary

class UserNotificationsTests: QuickSpec {
    
    override func spec() {

        describe("id") {
            
            it("is valid for didLogin") {
                let id = UserNotification.didLogin.id
                assert(id).to(equal("notifications.user.didLogin"))
            }
            
            it("is valid for didLogout") {
                let id = UserNotification.didLogout.id
                assert(id).to(equal("notifications.user.didLogout"))
            }
            
            it("is valid for loginStateDidChange") {
                let id = UserNotification.loginStateDidChange.id
                assert(id).to(equal("notifications.user.loginStateDidChange"))
            }
        }
        
        describe("notification name") {
            
            it("is valid for didLogin") {
                let notification = UserNotification.didLogin
                let name = Notification.Name.user(notification)
                assert(name.rawValue).to(equal(notification.id))
            }
            
            it("is valid for didLogout") {
                let notification = UserNotification.didLogout
                let name = Notification.Name.user(notification)
                assert(name.rawValue).to(equal(notification.id))
            }
            
            it("is valid for loginStateDidChange") {
                let notification = UserNotification.loginStateDidChange
                let name = Notification.Name.user(notification)
                assert(name.rawValue).to(equal(notification.id))
            }
        }
    }
}

This code could be compressed, sure, but would still be a pain to maintain. Each new case would require you to add 9 more lines of text, with the additional risk of copy/paste bugs etc.

You could also simplify this test suite by creating an array with all enum cases:

import Quick
import Nimble
import MyLibrary

class UserNotificationsTests: QuickSpec {
    
    override func spec() {

        let notifications: [UserNotification] = [.didLogin, .didLogout, .loginStateDidChange]

        describe("id") {

            it("is valid for all notifications") {
                notifications.forEach {
                    expect($0.id).to(equal("notifications.user.\($0.rawValue)"))
                }
            }
        }
        
        describe("notification name") {

            it("is valid for all notifications") {
                notifications.forEach {
                    let name = Notification.Name.user($0)
                    expect(name.rawValue).to(equal($0.id))
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

However, this approach would still require you to remember to add every new case to this array. It is tedious…and completely unnecessary, since we now have the brand new CaseIterable to help us out.

Testing iterable enums

CaseIterable is a Swift 4.2 protocol that adds an allCases property to enums that implement it. With it, we can reduce the amount of code we have to write in our tests.

First, make UserNotification implement CaseIterable like this:

public enum UserNotification: String, CaseIterable {
    
    ...
}

You can now reduce the manually managed test array, by using allCases instead:

import Quick
import Nimble
import MyLibrary

class UserNotificationsTests: QuickSpec {
    
    override func spec() {

        describe("id") {

            it("is valid for all notifications") {
                UserNotification.allCases.forEach {
                    expect($0.id).to(equal("notifications.user.\($0.rawValue)"))
                }
            }
        }
        
        describe("notification name") {

            it("is valid for all notifications") {
                UserNotification.allCases.forEach {
                    let name = Notification.Name.user($0)
                    expect(name.rawValue).to(equal($0.id))
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Another benefit is that you don’t have to remember to write new tests every time you add new cases to UserNotification.

Internally iterable enums

If your enum is public, but you only want to use the CaseIterable capabilities within your library and tests, you can make the implementation internal:

public enum UserNotification: String {   

    ...
}

extension UserNotification: CaseIterable {}

To make this available to your tests, your must now use @testable import:

import Quick
import Nimble
@testable import MyLibrary

class UserNotificationsTests: QuickSpec {
    
    ...
}

This means that you can benefit from CaseIterable capabilities in your library and tests, without having to expose them outside these boundaries.