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MP-Test

MP-Test is a set of functions for implementing unit testing in MATLAB or GNU Octave. It was initially developed for MATPOWER, and is used by MATPOWER, MATPOWER Interior Point Solver (MIPS), MP-Opt-Model and MATPOWER Optimal Scheduling Tool (MOST). It also includes a function have_feature for detecting support for optional functionality.

Installation

Note to MATPOWER users: MP-Test is included when you install MATPOWER. There is generally no need to install it separately. You can skip directly to step 3 to verify.

Installation and use of MP-Test requires familiarity with the basic operation of MATLAB or Octave, including setting up your MATLAB/Octave path.

1. Clone the repository or download and extract the zip file of the MP-Test distribution from the MP-Test project page to the location of your choice. The files in the resulting mptest or mptestXXX directory, where XXX depends on the version of MP-Test, should not need to be modified, so it is recommended that they be kept separate from your own code. We will use <MPTEST> to denote the path to this directory.

2. Add the following directories to your MATLAB/Octave path:

   • <MPTEST>/lib
   • <MPTEST>/lib/t

3. At the MATLAB/Octave prompt, type test_mptest to run the test suite and verify that MP-Test is properly installed and functioning. The result should resemble the following:

  >> test_mptest
  t_test_fcns.......ok
  t_have_feature....ok
  All tests successful (29 of 29)
  Elapsed time 0.14 seconds.

Usage

• Write test functions of the following form, where t_ok, t_is, t_str_match, and t_file_match are used to test for specific conditions or matches.

  function mptest_ex1(quiet)
  if nargin < 1
      quiet = 0;
  end
  t_begin(4, quiet);
  t_ok(pi > 3, 'size of pi');
  if have_feature('octave')
      t_ok(1, 'Octave-only test foo');
      t_ok(1, 'Octave-only test bar');
  else
      t_skip(2, 'foo and bar tests require Octave');
  end
  t_is(2+2, 4, 12, '2+2 still equals 4');
  t_end;

• Then run your test function:

  >> mptest_ex1
  1..4
  ok 1 - size of pi
  skipped 2..3 - foo and bar tests require Octave
  ok 4 - 2+2 still equals 4
  All tests successful (2 passed, 2 skipped of 4)
  Elapsed time 0.00 seconds.

• If you have several test functions, create a function to run them all as follows:

  function test_everything_ex1(verbose)
  if nargin < 1
    verbose = 0;
  end
  tests = {};
  tests{end+1} = 'mptest_ex1';
  tests{end+1} = 't_test_fcns';

  t_run_tests( tests, verbose );

• Run all of your tests at once. The output may look something like:

  >> test_everything_ex1
  mptest_ex1.....ok (2 of 4 skipped)
  t_test_fcns....ok
  All tests successful (7 passed, 2 skipped of 9)
  Elapsed time 0.06 seconds.

Documentation

The primary sources of documentation for MP-Test are this section of this README file and the built-in help command. As with the built-in functions and toolbox routines in MATLAB and Octave, you can type help followed by the name of a command or M-file to get help on that particular function.

Testing Functions

• t_begin — begin running tests

  t_begin(num_of_tests, quiet)
  

  Initializes the global test counters, setting everything up to execute num_of_tests tests using t_ok and t_is. If quiet is true, it will not print anything for the individual tests, only a summary when t_end is called.

• t_end — finish running tests and print statistics

  t_end
  

  Checks the global counters that were updated by calls to t_ok, t_is and t_skip and prints out a summary of the test results.

• t_ok — test whether a condition is true

  ok = t_ok(expr, msg)
  

  Increments the global test count and if the expr is true it increments the passed tests count, otherwise increments the failed tests count. Prints 'ok' or 'not ok' followed by the msg, unless t_begin was called with input quiet equal true. Intended to be called between calls to t_begin and t_end.

• t_is — test if two (scalar, vector, matrix) values are identical, to some tolerance

  ok = t_is(got, expected, prec, msg)
  

  Increments the global test count and if the maximum difference between corresponding elements of got and expected is less than 10^(-prec) then it increments the passed tests count, otherwise increments the failed tests count. Prints 'ok' or 'not ok' followed by the msg, unless t_begin was called with input quiet equal true. The input values can be real or complex, and they can be scalar, vector, or 2-d or higher matrices. If got is a vector or matrix and expected is a scalar or NaN, all elements must match the scalar. Intended to be called between calls to t_begin and t_end.

  Optionally returns a true or false value indicating whether or not the test succeeded. NaN values are considered to be equal to each other.

• t_str_match — test if two strings match, with optional replacements

  ok = t_str_match(got, expected, msg)
  ok = t_str_match(got, expected, msg, reps)
  

  This is equivalent to t_ok(strcmp(got, expected), msg), with the option to apply replacements to got, and optionally to expected, as specified by reps before comparing.

  The reps argument is a cell array of replacement specs, applied sequentially, where each replacement spec is a cell array of the following form:
  {original, replacement}
{original, replacement, re}
{original, replacement, re, both}
  The original and replacement arguments are passed directly as the 2nd and 3rd arguments to regexprep (or to strrep if re is present and false). The replacement applies to got only, unless both is present and true, in which case it also applies to expected.

• t_file_match — test if the contents of two text files match

  ok = t_file_match(got_fname, exp_fname, msg)
  ok = t_file_match(got_fname, exp_fname, msg, reps)
  ok = t_file_match(got_fname, exp_fname, msg, reps, del_got_fname)
  

  Uses t_str_match() on the contents of two text files whose names/paths are given in got_fname and exp_fname. If both files exist and the contents match, the test passes.

  It ignores any differences in line ending characters and, like t_str_match(), can apply replacements to the contents of got_fname, and optionally exp_fname, as specified by reps before comparing.

  See t_str_match above for a description of the reps argument.

  If del_got_fname is present and true it will delete the file named in got_fname if the test passes.

• t_skip — skip a number of tests

  t_skip(cnt, msg)
  

  Increments the global test count and skipped tests count. Prints 'skipped x..y : ' followed by the msg, unless t_begin was called with input quiet equal true. Intended to be called between calls to t_begin and t_end.

• t_run_tests — run a series of tests

  all_ok = t_run_tests(test_names, verbose)
  

  Runs a set of tests whose names are given in the cell array test_names. If the optional parameter verbose is true, it prints the details of the individual tests. Optionally returns an all_ok flag, equal to 1 if all tests pass (and the number matches the expected number), 0 otherwise.

Other Functions

• have_feature — test for optional functionality, with version information

  TorF = have_feature(tag)
  TorF = have_feature(tag, toggle)
  ver_str = have_feature(tag, 'vstr')
  ver_num = have_feature(tag, 'vnum')
  date    = have_feature(tag, 'date')
  info    = have_feature(tag, 'all')
  have_feature(tag, 'clear_cache')
  have_feature('all', 'clear_cache')
  

  Returns the availability, version and release information for optional functionality. All information is cached, and the cached values returned on subsequent calls. If the functionality exists, an attempt is made to determine the release date and version number. The second argument defines which value is returned, as follows:

  • '', 'av' or <none> — 1 = optional functionality is available, 0 = not available
  • 'vstr' — version number as a string (e.g. '3.11.4')
  • 'vnum' — version number as numeric value (e.g. 3.011004)
  • 'date' — release date as a string (e.g. '21-Sep-2020')
  • 'all' — struct with fields named 'av' (for "availability"), 'vstr', 'vnum' and 'date', and values corresponding to the above, respectively.

  For functionality that is not available, all calls with a string-valued second argument (except '' or 'av') will return an empty value.

  Alternatively, the availability status of the optional functionality specified by tag can be toggled OFF or ON by calling have_feature with a numeric second argument toggle with one of the following values:

  • 0 — turn OFF availability of the optional functionality
  • 1 — turn ON availability of the optional functionality (if available)
  • -1 — toggle the ON/OFF availability state of the optional functionality

  Note that this affects only the availability status returned by have_feature and nothing else.

  Finally, passing 'clear_cache' as the second argument will cause the cached information to be cleared for the specified tag or, if the first argument is 'all', for all optional functionality. When calling with 'clear_cache' no return value is defined.

  Example:

  if have_feature('matlab')
      disp(['Running MATLAB version ', have_feature('matlab', 'vstr')])
  else
      disp(['Running Octave version ', have_feature('octave', 'vstr')])
  end
  

• mptestver — prints or returns MP-Test version info

  v = mptestver
  v = mptestver('all')
  

  Returns the current MP-Test version numbers. If called with an argument, returns a struct with the fields Name, Version, Release and Date (all char arrays). Calling mptestver without assigning the return value prints the version and release date of the current installation of MP-Test.

Private Functions

The following are private functions that implement detection of specific optional functionality. They are not intended to be called directly, but rather are used to extend the capabilities of have_feature (see above).

• have_feature_matlab — feature detection function for MATLAB

  This function implements the 'matlab' tag for have_feature to detect whether the code is running under MATLAB.

• have_feature_octave — feature detection function for GNU Octave

  This function implements the 'octave' tag for have_feature to detect whether the code is running under GNU Octave.

Contributing

Please see our contributing guidelines for details on how to contribute to the project or report issues.

License

MP-Test is distributed under the 3-clause BSD license.

Acknowledgments

This material is based upon work supported in part by the Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS) and the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, Transmission Reliability Program of the U.S. Department of Energy under the National Energy Technology Laboratory Cooperative Agreement No. DE-FC26-09NT43321 and by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. 0532744, 1642341 and 1931421. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies.