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60 lines
3.0 KiB
Markdown
60 lines
3.0 KiB
Markdown
<a id="top"></a>
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# Why do we need yet another C++ test framework?
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Good question. For C++ there are quite a number of established frameworks,
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including (but not limited to),
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[Google Test](http://code.google.com/p/googletest/),
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[Boost.Test](http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_49_0/libs/test/doc/html/index.html),
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[CppUnit](http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/cppunit/index.php?title=Main_Page),
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[Cute](http://www.cute-test.com), and
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[many, many more](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unit_testing_frameworks#C.2B.2B).
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So what does Catch2 bring to the party that differentiates it from these? Apart from the catchy name, of course.
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## Key Features
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* Quick and easy to get started. Just download two files, add them into your project and you're away.
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* No external dependencies. As long as you can compile C++14 and have the C++ standard library available.
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* Write test cases as, self-registering, functions (or methods, if you prefer).
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* Divide test cases into sections, each of which is run in isolation (eliminates the need for fixtures).
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* Use BDD-style Given-When-Then sections as well as traditional unit test cases.
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* Only one core assertion macro for comparisons. Standard C/C++ operators are used for the comparison - yet the full expression is decomposed and lhs and rhs values are logged.
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* Tests are named using free-form strings - no more couching names in legal identifiers.
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## Other core features
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* Tests can be tagged for easily running ad-hoc groups of tests.
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* Failures can (optionally) break into the debugger on common platforms.
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* Output is through modular reporter objects. Basic textual and XML reporters are included. Custom reporters can easily be added.
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* JUnit xml output is supported for integration with third-party tools, such as CI servers.
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* A default main() function is provided, but you can supply your own for complete control (e.g. integration into your own test runner GUI).
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* A command line parser is provided and can still be used if you choose to provide your own main() function.
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* Alternative assertion macro(s) report failures but don't abort the test case
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* Good set of facilities for floating point comparisons (`Catch::Approx` and full set of matchers)
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* Internal and friendly macros are isolated so name clashes can be managed
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* Data generators (data driven test support)
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* Hamcrest-style Matchers for testing complex properties
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* Microbenchmarking support
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## Who else is using Catch2?
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A whole lot of people. According to [the 2022 JetBrains C++ ecosystem survey](https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/devecosystem-2022/cpp/#Which-unit-testing-frameworks-do-you-regularly-use),
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about 12% of C++ programmers use Catch2 for unit testing, making it the
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second most popular unit testing framework.
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You can also take a look at the (incomplete) list of [open source projects](opensource-users.md#top)
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or the (very incomplete) list of [commercial users of Catch2](commercial-users.md#top)
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for some idea on who else also uses Catch2.
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---
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See the [tutorial](tutorial.md#top) to get more of a taste of using
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Catch2 in practice.
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---
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[Home](Readme.md#top)
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