unit testing - How to mock new Date() in java using Mockito

Question

I have a function that uses the current time to make some calculations. I'd like to mock it using mockito.

An example of the class I'd like to test:

public class ClassToTest {
    public long getDoubleTime(){
        return new Date().getTime()*2;
    }
}

I'd like something like:

@Test
public void testDoubleTime(){
   mockDateSomeHow(Date.class).when(getTime()).return(30);
   assertEquals(60,new ClassToTest().getDoubleTime());
}

Is it possible to mock that? I wouldn't like to change the "tested" code in order to be tested.

Answer 1

The right thing to do is to restructure your code to make it more testable as shown below. Restructuring your code to remove the direct dependency on Date will allow you to inject different implementations for normal runtime and test runtime:

interface DateTime {
    Date getDate();
}

class DateTimeImpl implements DateTime {
    @Override
    public Date getDate() {
       return new Date();
    }
}

class MyClass {

    private final DateTime dateTime;
    // inject your Mock DateTime when testing other wise inject DateTimeImpl

    public MyClass(final DateTime dateTime) {
        this.dateTime = dateTime;
    }

    public long getDoubleTime(){
        return dateTime.getDate().getTime()*2;
    }
}

public class MyClassTest {
    private MyClass myClassTest;

    @Before
    public void setUp() {
        final Date date = Mockito.mock(Date.class);
        Mockito.when(date.getTime()).thenReturn(30L);

        final DateTime dt = Mockito.mock(DateTime.class);
        Mockito.when(dt.getDate()).thenReturn(date);

        myClassTest = new MyClass(dt);
    }

    @Test
    public void someTest() {
        final long doubleTime = myClassTest.getDoubleTime();
        assertEquals(60, doubleTime);
    }
}