Terminology differs, but in general “test double” is an overaching term for a non-production object that is used as part of a test in place of a production object. There are several different types:
- Dummy: No behavior and no verification. Often used just to fill in parameter lists.
- Stub: Hard-coded behavior. May record state for state verification, i.e. which emails were sent.
- Mock: Allows setting expectations on behavior before the test runs.
- Spy: Allows verifying behavior after the fact. Martin Fowler associates spies with stubs, but to me they seem more closely associated with mocks because they allow behavior verification.
- Fake: A functioning version of the object that has some limitation that prevents it from being used in production. For example, it might use an in-memory database. Fakes allow productive manual testing.
The same test double framework may be able to be used to create different types of test double. For example, in rspec-mocks:
- A double with
as_null_object called on it functions as a dummy
- A double with
allow().to receive() called on it functions as a stub
- A double with
expect().to receive() called on it functions as a mock
- An object created with
spy() is a spy
More Info