unit testing framework for R?

the package 'tests' directory is great, and we use it, but it isn't
unit testing in the same sense -- more regression tests (reactive
rather than proactive).

best,
-tony


Tony Plate <tplate@blackmesacapital.com> writes:

Packages can have a 'tests' directory, which can contain foo.R and
foo.Rout.save files.  When packages are built (or checked) the output
from running R with the commands in foo.R is compared with
foo.Rout.save, and differences are reported.

The "Writing R Extensions" manual discusses this a little.  It
suggests: "Use R CMD check --help (Rcmd check --help on Windows) to
obtain more information about the usage of the R package checker. A
subset of the checking steps can be selected by adding flags."

I've considered looking at several enhancements of the testing
features: (1) automatically construct foo.R from foo.Rout.save (easy
if the file only contains simple commands issued at the standard
prompt); (2) allow specification of which test files to run; and (3)
print summaries of test successes and failures at the end of running
the selected tests.  Is there any wider interest in such features?

-- Tony Plate

At Wednesday 11:11 AM 3/17/2004, Paul Shannon wrote:

In a quick search of the R website just now, I found no mention of
a unit testing framework for R.  I hope to find something
in the style of Java's JUnit, or Python's unittest.  Is such a
thing available?

Thanks,

  - Paul Shannon
    Institute for Systems Biology
    Seattle

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