I am trying to test a function that creates a message exchange graph from IRC chat logs. I am having trouble trying to mock the dependencies. The function makes use of util module, a lot of which takes input and returns an output. The problem is that these utils functions are being called multiple times inside for loops and if-conditionals. How do I specify multiple returns based on output? I would like to know how to unit-test functions similar to these.
I have been using python standard unittest and mock libraries.
Source of the code: IRCLogParser
def message_number_graph(log_dict, nicks, nick_same_list,DAY_BY_DAY_ANALYSIS=False): """ Creates a directed graph with each node representing an IRC user and each directed edge has a weight which mentions the number messages sent and recieved by that user in the selected time frame. Args: log_dict (dict): with key as dateTime.date object and value as {"data":datalist,"channel_name":channels name} nicks(list): list of all the nicks nick_same_list(list): list of lists mentioning nicks which belong to same users Returns: message_number_graph (nx graph object) """ message_number_day_list = [] conversations=[[0] for i in range(config.MAX_EXPECTED_DIFF_NICKS)] aggregate_message_number_graph = nx.DiGraph() #graph with multiple directed edges between clients used G = util.to_graph(nick_same_list) conn_comp_list = list(connected_components(G)) util.create_connected_nick_list(conn_comp_list) def msg_no_analysis_helper(rec_list, corrected_nick, nick, conn_comp_list,conversations,today_conversation): for receiver in rec_list: if(receiver == nick): if(corrected_nick != nick): nick_receiver = '' nick_receiver = util.get_nick_sen_rec(config.MAX_EXPECTED_DIFF_NICKS, nick, conn_comp_list, nick_receiver) if DAY_BY_DAY_ANALYSIS: today_conversation = util.extend_conversation_list(nick_sender, nick_receiver, today_conversation) else: conversations = util.extend_conversation_list(nick_sender, nick_receiver, conversations) def message_no_add_egde(message_graph, conversation): for index in xrange(config.MAX_EXPECTED_DIFF_NICKS): if(len(conversation[index]) == 3 and conversation[index][0] >= config.THRESHOLD_MESSAGE_NUMBER_GRAPH): if len(conversation[index][1]) >= config.MINIMUM_NICK_LENGTH and len(conversation[index][2]) >= config.MINIMUM_NICK_LENGTH: message_graph.add_edge(util.get_nick_representative(nicks, nick_same_list, conversation[index][1]), util.get_nick_representative(nicks, nick_same_list, conversation[index][2]), weight=conversation[index][0]) return message_graph for day_content_all_channels in log_dict.values(): for day_content in day_content_all_channels: day_log = day_content["log_data"] today_conversation = [[0] for i in range(config.MAX_EXPECTED_DIFF_NICKS)] for line in day_log: flag_comma = 0 if(util.check_if_msg_line (line)): parsed_nick = re.search(r"\<(.*?)\>", line) corrected_nick = util.correctLastCharCR(parsed_nick.group(0)[1:-1]) nick_sender = "" nick_receiver = "" nick_sender = util.get_nick_sen_rec(config.MAX_EXPECTED_DIFF_NICKS, corrected_nick, conn_comp_list, nick_sender) for nick in nicks: rec_list = [e.strip() for e in line.split(':')] util.rec_list_splice(rec_list) if not rec_list[1]: break rec_list = util.correct_last_char_list(rec_list) msg_no_analysis_helper(rec_list, corrected_nick, nick, conn_comp_list, conversations,today_conversation) if "," in rec_list[1]: flag_comma = 1 rec_list_2=[e.strip() for e in rec_list[1].split(',')] for i in xrange(0,len(rec_list_2)): if(rec_list_2[i]): rec_list_2[i] = util.correctLastCharCR(rec_list_2[i]) msg_no_analysis_helper(rec_list_2, corrected_nick, nick, conn_comp_list, conversations, today_conversation) if(flag_comma == 0): rec = line[line.find(">")+1:line.find(", ")] rec = rec[1:] rec = util.correctLastCharCR(rec) if(rec == nick): if(corrected_nick != nick): nick_receiver = nick_receiver_from_conn_comp(nick, conn_comp_list) if DAY_BY_DAY_ANALYSIS: today_message_number_graph = nx.DiGraph() today_message_number_graph = message_no_add_egde(today_message_number_graph, today_conversation) year, month, day = util.get_year_month_day(day_content) message_number_day_list.append([today_message_number_graph, year+'-'+month+'-'+day]) print "\nBuilding graph object with EDGE WEIGHT THRESHOLD:", config.THRESHOLD_MESSAGE_NUMBER_GRAPH if not DAY_BY_DAY_ANALYSIS: aggregate_message_number_graph = message_no_add_egde(aggregate_message_number_graph, conversations) if config.DEBUGGER: print "========> 30 on " + str(len(conversations)) + " conversations" print conversations[:30] if DAY_BY_DAY_ANALYSIS: return message_number_day_list else: return aggregate_message_number_graph