# Need some help

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-some-help/104686>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [May 21, 2007, 3:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-some-help/104686 "2007-05-21T15:30:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Disha\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f04885/32.png) [@Disha\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Disha_T)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 3:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-some-help/104686/1 "2007-05-21T15:30:03Z")

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Hi,

I have a script in one file say “a.rb”.  
I have another file “tc\_a.rb” which is a test case for “a.rb”  
I have called a specific script in “a.rb” by using the system() command  
from  
“tc\_a.rb”

Now when i am using rcov to get the code coverage, although an if -else  
block in “a.rb” is getting executed, rcov doesn’t seem to recognise  
it… it  
still shows the block as not covered…May be because it is getting  
called  
through the system command

This particular if-else block is an independent one i.e. not present in  
any  
method in “a.rb”

I need to get this block covered…

Can someone suggest a solution?

Thanks  
Disha

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Disha\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f04885/32.png) [@Disha\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Disha_T)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 4:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-some-help/104686/2 "2007-05-21T16:10:14Z")

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Hey Gregory,

Thanks for your response.

Following is the code snippet that i am trying to test :

basedir = ARGV[0]

if (ARGV[0])  
contains = Dir.new(basedir).entries  
for file in contains  
if (file != “.” && file !="…")  
tokens = file.split("-");  
model = tokens[0]  
tokens1 = tokens[2].split(".xm")  
dealer = tokens1[0]  
puts model + “,” + dealer + “,” + basedir + “/” + file  
getallocprsr = GetAllocationsParser.new  
getallocprsr.parsefile(basedir + “/” + file)  
sql = “UPDATE Validations set getAlloc = " +  
getallocprsr.allocation.to\_s  
sql = sql + " where DealerName like '” + dealer + “’ and  
Vehicleline like '” + model + “’”  
puts sql  
db.updateQuery(sql)  
end  
end  
else

```
puts "Usage :"
puts ""
puts "$> ruby a.rb <basedir> "
puts ""
puts "basedir : This is the base directory where the getAllocations

```

responses"  
puts " can be found"  
puts “”  
end  
db.close

Thanks,

Disha

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Disha\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f04885/32.png) [@Disha\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Disha_T)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 3:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-some-help/104686/3 "2007-05-21T15:50:07Z")

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On 5/21/07, Disha T. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> through the system command
> 
> This particular if-else block is an independent one i.e. not present in any  
> method in “a.rb”
> 
> I need to get this block covered…
> 
> Can someone suggest a solution?

Are you doing something like, taking arguments

e.g:

ARGV[0].do\_something

and you want to test this?

if that’s the case, split it up into a library / script combo, and  
make the functions testable

#---------

def do\_it(arg)  
arg.do\_something  
end

if **FILE** == $PROGRAM\_NAME  
do\_it(ARGV[0])  
end

#------

Now you can test the do\_it method by just requiring the file.  
if you do this cleanly enough, there won’t be much left to test in your  
script.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Disha\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f04885/32.png) [@Disha\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Disha_T)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 4:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-some-help/104686/4 "2007-05-21T16:18:16Z")

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On 5/21/07, Disha T. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Hey Gregory,
> 
> Thanks for your response.
> 
> Following is the code snippet that i am trying to test :
> 
> basedir = ARGV[0]

Wrap the code below in a method like this:

def do\_something\_with\_basedir(dir)  
#…  
end

and pass it the values you want to test in your unit tests.

> ```
> getallocprsr.parsefile(basedir + "/" + file)
> puts "Usage :"
> puts ""
> puts "$> ruby a.rb <basedir> "
> puts ""
> puts "basedir : This is the base directory where the getAllocations
> 
> ```
> 
> responses"  
> puts " can be found"  
> puts “”  
> end  
> db.close

If you want to test this text output, have a look at the StringIO docs

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Disha\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f04885/32.png) [@Disha\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Disha_T)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 4:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-some-help/104686/5 "2007-05-21T16:25:17Z")

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On 5/21/07, Disha T. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> ```
> contains = Dir.new(basedir).entries
> 
> ```
> 
> getallocprsr.allocation.to\_s  
> puts "$\> ruby a.rb "  
> Thanks,
> 
> > > I have a script in one file say “a.rb”.  
> > > through the system command
> > 
> > Now you can test the do\_it method by just requiring the file.  
> > if you do this cleanly enough, there won’t be much left to test in your  
> > script.

Gregory is right - you should put ARGV handling somewhere aside to  
make testing easier.

That said, you can pass arguments to your script using – delimiter,  
but IMO they should be test harness related, not code-under-test  
related. For example,  
rcov -replace-progname [i.e. rcov option] tc\_xxx.rb – -whatever a b  
[script options]

rcov normally changes $0 as well, so I use to add --replace-progname  
and use this version of if **FILE** == $0 guard:

if File.expand\_path( **FILE** ) == File.expand\_path($0)  
…  
end

(it fixes the $0 == ‘script.rb’ vs. $0 == ‘./script.rb’ case)

J.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Disha\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f04885/32.png) [@Disha\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Disha_T)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-some-help/104686/6 "2007-05-21T16:50:19Z")

</div>

On 5/21/07, Disha T. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Thanks Gregory… Guess this will work now…
> 
> But just to check… will it not work if it is not enclosed in a method?
> 
> Is there an alternative way?

Usually you will want to structure your code so it is most easily  
testable. For example, if you were using system() because you wanted  
to test the output to the screen, you can still test that.

Here’s a small example

def hello(out=STDOUT)  
out.puts “Hello World”  
end

If you were to call that, just as hello(), it’d print to the screen.

But say you wanted to test it, you could use StringIO.  
#------  
require “stringio”  
require “test/unit”

class HelloTest \< Test::Unit::TestCase  
def test\_hello  
out = StringIO.new  
hello(out)  
out.rewind  
assert\_equal “Hello World\n”, out.read  
end  
end  
#----

In general, this makes your code more well organized and easier to  
work with. If you want to do good testing, it pretty much means  
you’ll need to structure your code so it can be tested 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Disha\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f04885/32.png) [@Disha\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Disha_T)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 4:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-some-help/104686/7 "2007-05-21T16:26:17Z")

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Thanks Gregory… Guess this will work now…

But just to check… will it not work if it is not enclosed in a method?

Is there an alternative way?