How to Run a Single Test

· 228 words · 2 minutes read
#test #single #verbose #run #testing #command #suite #example

Go has a simple command line for running its tests, with go test. However, often when writing tests you don’t care about the rest of the test suite - you just want to run your new test. This post shows you the command you need to run just your test, as well as a full example below.

TL;DR: use -run

go test -run TestSub

Example:

main.go

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package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    fmt.Printf("add: %d\n", add(2, 6))
    fmt.Printf("sub: %d\n", sub(2, 6))
}

func add(num1 int, num2 int) int {
    return num1 + num2
}

func sub(num1 int, num2 int) int {
    return num1 - num2
}

main_test.go

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package main

import "testing"

func TestAdd(t *testing.T) {
    result := add(2, 4)
    expected := 6
    if result != expected {
        t.Errorf("add() test returned an unexpected result: got %v want %v", result, expected)
    }
}

func TestSub(t *testing.T) {
    result := sub(2, 4)
    expected := -2
    if result != expected {
        t.Errorf("sub() test returned an unexpected result: got %v want %v", result, expected)
    }
}

Command: (We are running with the -v parameter so we can see which tests have been run.)

go test -v -run TestSub

running a single golang test

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Author:  Edd Turtle

Edd is the Lead Developer at Hoowla, a prop-tech startup, where he spends much of his time working on production-ready Go and PHP code. He loves coding, but also enjoys cycling and camping in his spare time.

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