Extend MATLAB Unit Testing Framework with MATLAB Test

Since R2023a

MATLAB^® Test™ extends the capabilities of the MATLAB unit testing framework. For example, with MATLAB Test, you can:

Measure the decision coverage, condition coverage, and modified condition/decision coverage (MC/DC) of your source code.
Generate a standalone code coverage report.
Filter a test suite by source code dependency.
Create and run a suite of tests that verify requirements (requires Requirements Toolbox™).
Run tests by using the "n-wise" parameter combination.

This topic provides a summary of how MATLAB Test extends the functionality provided by existing MATLAB apps, classes, and functions. For more information about the MATLAB unit testing framework, see Ways to Write Unit Tests.

Measure Decision Coverage, Condition Coverage, and MC/DC

The unit testing framework lets you measure the statement coverage and function coverage of your MATLAB source code. You can collect and access these metrics either programmatically by using the matlab.unittest.plugins.CodeCoveragePlugin class or interactively by using the Test Browser app. If you have a MATLAB Test license, you can use CodeCoveragePlugin and Test Browser to also measure the decision coverage, condition coverage, and MC/DC of your source code.

Generate Standalone Code Coverage Report

Since R2024a

If you have a MATLAB Test license, you can generate a standalone code coverage report as a single file by using the generateStandaloneReport method of the matlab.coverage.Result class. Alternatively, you can generate a standalone report if you create a CodeCoveragePlugin instance using the matlabtest.plugins.codecoverage.StandaloneReport class.

Justify Missing Coverage

Since R2024b

If you have a MATLAB Test license, you can create justifications to filter blocks of source code that were not covered by tests. You can then create new coverage results by using the applyFilter and resetFilter methods of the matlab.coverage.Result class. Additionally, you can reuse the justifications previously created for the source code under test by specifying the Filter name-value argument when you create a plugin using one of the static methods of the CodeCoveragePlugin class. For more information, see Justify Missing Coverage for MATLAB Source Code.

Filter Test Suite by Source Code Dependency

If you have a MATLAB Test license, you can filter a test suite by test file dependency on specified source code. To specify the source files and folders, use the matlabtest.selectors.DependsOn class or the DependsOn name-value argument. You can specify the DependsOn name-value argument for these methods and functions of the unit testing framework:

Static methods of the matlab.unittest.TestSuite class, such as matlab.unittest.TestSuite.fromFolder
selectIf
testsuite
runtests

Create and Run Suite of Tests That Verify Requirements

If you have MATLAB Test and Requirements Toolbox licenses, you can create a test suite from tests that verify requirements by using matlab.unittest.TestSuite.fromRequirements, which is a static method of the matlab.unittest.TestSuite class. You can also use the testsuite and runtests functions to respectively create a suite of tests and run tests that verify requirement sets.

Run Tests Using `"n-wise"` Parameter Combination

When you pass more than one parameterization property to a method of a matlab.unittest.TestCase subclass, MATLAB Test can invoke the method for every n-tuple of parameter values. To use this type of parameter combination, specify the ParameterCombination attribute of the method as "n-wise", where n is an integer between 2 and 10. The "n-wise" parameter combination generalizes the "pairwise" combination.

Create Baseline Tests

Since R2024b

If you have a MATLAB Test license, you can compare the output of your code against baseline data by creating and running baseline tests. For example, you can create a test class with a parameterization property set to a scalar baseline parameter and then specify that property as an input to methods that test against the baseline data using the verifyEqualsBaseline method of the matlab.unittest.qualifications.Verifiable class. For more information, see Create Baseline Tests for MATLAB Code.