xSV question, and general testing question.

tphyahoo has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

O wise ones,

I have 2 questions, a specific question about Text::xSV and a more general question about testing.

I think I may have discovered a minor bug in xSV, as shown in the script below. My first question is, is this indeed a bug or did I misunderstand the documentation.

But more importantly, I want to add testing to my coding process. How could this type of "failure" of object creation, if that's what it is, be rewritten with testing... so that I could report it the right way... and eventually begin testing sexier things, like PUGS :)

A specific question I have about testing is, should I not use the strictures with testing, because that would cause the test script not to compile before failing?

use warnings;
use strict;
use Text::xSV; #documentation in http://search.cpan.org/~tilly/Text-xS
+V-0.14/lib/Text/xSV.pm

#filename set in new().  works.
my $csv1 = Text::xSV->new(
filename => "filename.txt",
header   => ["partner",
            "kampagne",
            "keywordCluster",
            "keyword",
            "clicks",
            "leads",
            "orders",
            "jaronVerguetung",
            "partnerVerguetung",
            "profit"],
);
$csv1->set_sep(';');

#filename set in set_filename.  Doesn't work.
#error is "global symbol... requires explicit package name.  Fails on 
+set_filename.  But not on set_sep.  Weird.
my $csv2 = Text::xSV->new(
header   => ["partner",
            "kampagne",
            "keywordCluster",
            "keyword",
            "clicks",
            "leads",
            "orders",
            "jaronVerguetung",
            "partnerVerguetung",
            "profit"],
);
$csv2->set_sep(';');
$cvs2->set_filename("popularixCombined.csv");
[download]

I am reading the documentation for Test::Simple, Test::More, and the testing tutorial included with the core install of perl. If there's anything else worth taking a look at, or thinking about, would appreciate insight from those with more experience than me.

UPDATE: Deleted filename => "filename.txt", from creation of second object; didn't mean to have this. Still get the error though. Thanks Corion.

UPDATE 2: Rewrote this using Test::Simple, see below.

UPDATEe 3: This was a variable name typo issue. Well, at least I got started learning the testing stuff... gulp..... /me slinks off.....

Comment on xSV question, and general testing question. Select or Download Code

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Re: xSV question, and general testing question. by Corion (Patriarch) on May 18, 2005 at 09:05 UTC
Tests are programs like any other program and thus should `use strict;` wherever possible. I drop `strict 'refs'` from time to time because it's easier and more clear (in a short script) to overwrite globs with a symbolic reference, but `strict` prevents me from making stupid typo errors. If you think your script does not compile with `strict` in effect, theree is always `eval STRING`, but in your case, `eval BLOCK` should already be enough, as it is not a compilation/syntax error but a runtime error. I would rewrite the second test as: `my $csv2 = Text::xSV->new( filename => 'filename.txt', ... ); my $new_filename = "popularixCombined.csv"; eval { $csv2->set_filename($new_filename) }; is( $@, undef, "Changing the filename does not raise an error"); is( $csv->get_filename, $new_filename, "... and sets the new filename" + );` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: xSV question, and general testing question. by dragonchild (Archbishop) on May 18, 2005 at 13:07 UTC
Corion fixed the immediate problem, which is good. Here's how I would go about doing your tests. Everything is tested. `use strict; # no "use warnings" unless I guarantee this is 5.6+. # CPAN modules may not have that guarantee. # If Makefile.PL has a check for 5.6, I can add this back in. use Test::More tests => 6; my $CLASS = 'Text::xSV'; use_ok( $CLASS ); my $obj; $obj = $CLASS->new( ... ); isa_ok( $obj ); ok( $obj->set_sep(';'), "Set separator" ); $obj = $CLASS->new( ... ); isa_ok( $obj ); ok( $obj->set_sep(';'), "Set separator" ); ok( $obj->set_filename("popularixCombined.csv"), "Set filename" );` [download] In general, if you think something isn't in Perl, try it out, because it usually is. :-) "What is the sound of Perl? Is it not the sound of a wall that people have stopped banging their heads against?"	[reply] [d/l]
Re: xSV question, and general testing question. by tphyahoo (Vicar) on May 18, 2005 at 09:36 UTC
OK, here's the script using Test::Simple, and using using eval as corion suggested. However, it still fails on compilation, complaining that $csv2 needs an explicit package name, on the last line, set_filename. If I comment this line out, it works. Is there any way I can create a test script that will run the first three tests and fail out on the final test? And why is this final test failing, anyway? use warnings; use strict; use Text::xSV; #documentation in http://search.cpan.org/~tilly/Text-xS +V-0.14/lib/Text/xSV.pm use Test::Simple tests => 4; #filename set in new(). works. my $csv1 = Text::xSV->new( filename => "filename.txt", header => ["partner", "kampagne", "keywordCluster", "keyword", "clicks", "leads", "orders", "jaronVerguetung", "partnerVerguetung", "profit"], ); ok( ( defined($csv1) ) , 'Csv object created using filename => "filena +me.txt"'); ok( $csv1->set_sep(';') , "Separator set for this object." ); #filename set in set_filename. Doesn't work. #error is "global symbol... requires explicit package name. Fails on +set_filename. But not on set_sep. Weird. my $csv2 = Text::xSV->new(); ok( ( defined($csv2) ) , 'Csv object created with new, without using f +ilename => "filename.txt"'); ok( ( eval { $csv2->set_filename("popularixCombined.csv") } ) ,"Filena +me set for this object."); [download] UPDATE: Corrected the variable name. All four tests now run. Oops.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: xSV question, and general testing question. by Corion (Patriarch) on May 18, 2005 at 09:37 UTC
That's what `use strict;` is for: Compare `$cvs` and `$csv`... From time to time, Perls error messages actually tell you what is wrong, especially when it's a variable name ...	[reply]
Re: xSV question, and general testing question. by mrborisguy (Hermit) on May 18, 2005 at 13:48 UTC
more importantly, you declare $csv2 and use it for a while, and then suddenly for set_filename, you use $cvs2 ( 'v' and 's' switched ). Could this have	[reply]