Re: [Boost-users] Testing private methods in Boost

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] Testing private methods in Boost
From: Ovanes Markarian (om_boost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-06-09 04:54:50

If you class has a function template (public, protected or private) you can
specialize this function template with some custom type and gain access to
it. With protected or private you have to trix around. With public it is
pretty straight forward:

class my_class
{
  public:
    template<class T>
    void some_entry_point();

   private:
    void my_secret_function()
    {
       //...
    }
};

// test code:

namespace
{
   struct my_secret_type_to_specialize_entry_point {};
}

template<>
void my_class::some_entry_point<my_secret_type_to_specialize_entry_point>()
{
  // run the test here
}

BOOST_AUTO_TEST(...)
{
  my_class mc;

  mc.template some_entry_point<my_secret_type_to_specialize_entry_point>();
}

That's it ;) This point is well covered in one of the H. Sutter's
exceptional C++ books and might be available on the Guru of the Week website
(http://www.gotw.ca/gotw).

Regards,
Ovanes

On Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 9:54 PM, <hmiller_at_[hidden]> wrote:

> Is their a good strategy for testing private methods in a class using
> Boost?  I am looking for something that is non-intrusive to the developed
> code, but I can't think of any good ways without modifying the code under
> test.
> Thanks,
> Herb Miller
>
>