Writing Testing Aware Programs

Short url for this page: http://tinyurl.com/64xswz

Writing Testing-Aware Programs that Self-Report when Testing Options are True

Author: Ronald_J._Fehd

Abstract

Program development proceeds through four phases: investigation, development, unit testing, and integration testing. Testing typically consumes 50% of project resources. Any programming effort spent in support of testing may significantly reduce project costs and help ensure the delivery of the project's product: a set of tested and integrated programs.

This paper examines the architectural issues of writing SAS(R) programs that are testing-aware: that have a variable Testing whose default value is false, which can be reset to true based on the values of options and which write information to the log when testing is true.

• Topics covered include

options used for testing, both command-line and used-anywhere; example code for data step, includes and macro programs used as any of module, routine, or subroutine.

• Audience: architects, designers, software engineers,

project managers, intermediate to advanced programmers, advanced users.

• keywords: echoauto, macro, module, mprint, %oplist, options, parameterized include file, routine, source2, subroutine, testing, verbose

• Information: programs using call execute to:

1. call parametized include files and
2. macros.

Summary

• predecessor: FreqAll

• provides set of testing programs

• provides examples to implement demo version of FreqAll as

1. parameterized includes

1. macros

Topics

• options echoauto, mprint, source2 and verbose

• using %sysfunc(getoption(<OptName>)) to test option values in programs

• using parameterized includes

• using macros

Information

• using call execute to call macros

• using call execute to call parameterized includes

• using call execute with macro function nrstr

zip

Download the Writing Testing-aware Programs zip file that contains 46 programs

• programs shown in paper

• R&D demo programs

• <program>-Test

• .bat for each .sas

• .cfg

• .pdf: Fehd-Writing-Testing-Aware-Programs.pdf 20 pages

References

• Macro CallMacr
• Macro CallText
• Processing Data Sets
• Processing Variables
• Routine CxInclude
• Routine CxMacro
• see also:
  • Using Functions SYSFUNC and IFC to conditionally execute statements in open code
  • Conditionally Executing Global Statements
  • Evaluating Logical Expressions

-- created by User:Rjf2 30 July 2007

--Ronald_J._Fehd macro.maven == the radical programmer 07:39, 24 June 2012 (EDT)