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Add law testing guide #1880

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2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion build.sbt
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ lazy val docs = project
.settings(noPublishSettings)
.settings(docSettings)
.settings(commonJvmSettings)
.dependsOn(coreJVM, freeJVM)
.dependsOn(coreJVM, freeJVM, kernelLawsJVM, lawsJVM, testkitJVM)

lazy val cats = project.in(file("."))
.settings(moduleName := "root")
Expand Down
144 changes: 144 additions & 0 deletions docs/src/main/tut/typeclasses/lawtesting.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -0,0 +1,144 @@
# Law testing

[Laws](https://typelevel.org/cats/typeclasses.html#laws) are an important part of cats.
Cats uses `catalysts` and `discipline` to help test instances with laws.
To make things easier, cats ships with `cats-testkit`, which makes use of `catalysts` and `discipline` and exposes `CatsSuite` based on ScalaTest.


## Getting started

First up, you will need to specify dependencies on `cats-laws` and `cats-testkit` in your `build.sbt` file.
To make things easier, we'll also include the `scalacheck-shapeless` library in this tutorial, so we don't have to manually write instances for ScalaCheck's `Arbitrary`.

```scala
libraryDependencies ++= Seq(
"org.typelevel" %% "cats-laws" % "1.0.0-MF" % Test,
"org.typelevel" %% "cats-testkit" % "1.0.0-MF"% Test,
"com.github.alexarchambault" %% "scalacheck-shapeless_1.13" % "1.1.5" % Test
)
```

## Example: Testing a Functor instance

We'll begin by creating a data type and its Functor instance.
```tut:book
import cats._

sealed trait Tree[+A]
case object Leaf extends Tree[Nothing]
case class Node[A](p: A, left: Tree[A], right: Tree[A]) extends Tree[A]

object Tree {
implicit val functorTree: Functor[Tree] = new Functor[Tree] {
def map[A, B](tree: Tree[A])(f: A => B) = tree match {
case Leaf => Leaf
case Node(p, left, right) => Node(f(p), map(left)(f), map(right)(f))
}
}
}
```
We will also need to create an `Eq` instance, as most laws will need to compare values of a type to properly test for correctness.
For simplicity we'll just use `Eq.fromUniversalEquals`:

```tut:book
implicit def eqTree[A: Eq]: Eq[Tree[A]] = Eq.fromUniversalEquals
```

Then we can begin to write our law tests. Start by creating a new class in your `test` folder and inheriting from `cats.tests.CatsSuite`.
`CatsSuite` extends the standard ScalaTest `FunSuite` as well as `Matchers`.
Furthermore it also pulls in all of cats instances and syntax, so there's no need to import from `cats.implicits._`.

```tut:book
import cats.tests.CatsSuite

class TreeLawTests extends CatsSuite {

}
```

The key to testing laws is the `checkAll` function, which takes a name for your test and a Discipline ruleset.
Cats has defined rulesets for all type class laws in `cats.laws.discipline.*`.

So for our example we will want to import `cats.laws.discipline.FunctorTests` and call `checkAll` with it.
Before we do so, however,
we will have to bring our instances into scope as well as the derived `Arbitrary` instances from `scalacheck-shapeless`
(We have defined an Arbitrary instance for `Tree` here, but you won't need it if you import `org.scalacheck.Shapeless._`).



```tut:silent

import org.scalacheck.{Arbitrary, Gen}

implicit def arbFoo[A: Arbitrary]: Arbitrary[Tree[A]] =
Arbitrary(Gen.oneOf(Gen.const(Leaf), (for {
e <- Arbitrary.arbitrary[A]
} yield Node(e, Leaf, Leaf)))
)
```

```tut:book
import Tree._

import cats.laws.discipline.FunctorTests

class TreeLawTests extends CatsSuite {
checkAll("Tree.FunctorLaws", FunctorTests[Tree].functor[Int, Int, String])
}
```

Now when we run `test` in our sbt console, ScalaCheck will test if the `Functor` laws hold for our `Tree` type.
You should see something like this:

```
[info] TreeLawTests:
[info] - Tree.FunctorLaws.functor.covariant composition
[info] - Tree.FunctorLaws.functor.covariant identity
[info] - Tree.FunctorLaws.functor.invariant composition
[info] - Tree.FunctorLaws.functor.invariant identity
[info] ScalaTest
[info] Run completed in 537 milliseconds.
[info] Total number of tests run: 4
[info] Suites: completed 1, aborted 0
[info] Tests: succeeded 4, failed 0, canceled 0, ignored 0, pending 0
[info] All tests passed.
[info] Passed: Total 4, Failed 0, Errors 0, Passed 4
[success] Total time: 1 s, completed Aug 31, 2017 2:19:22 PM
```

And voila, you've successfully proven that your data type upholds the Functor laws!

### Testing cats.kernel instances

For most of the type classes included in cats, the above will work great.
However, the law tests for the type classes inside `cats.kernel` are structured a bit differently.
These include `Semigroup`, `Monoid`, `Group` and `Semilattice`.
Instead of importing the laws from `cats.laws.discipline.*`, we have to import `cats.kernel.laws.GroupLaws`
and then call the corresponding method, e.g. `GroupLaws[Foo].monoid`, or `GroupLaws[Foo].semigroup`.

Let's test it out, by defining a `Semigroup` instance for our `Tree` type.

```tut:book
import cats.implicits._

implicit def semigroupTree[A: Semigroup]: Semigroup[Tree[A]] = new Semigroup[Tree[A]] {
def combine(x: Tree[A], y: Tree[A]) = (x, y) match {
case (Leaf, _) => Leaf
case (_, Leaf) => Leaf
case (Node(xp, xLeft, xRight), Node(yp, yLeft, yRight)) =>
Node(xp |+| yp, xLeft |+| yLeft, xRight |+| yRight)
}
}
```

Then we can again test the instance inside our class extending `CatsSuite`:

```tut:book
import cats.laws.discipline.FunctorTests
import cats.kernel.laws.GroupLaws

class TreeLawTests extends CatsSuite {
checkAll("Tree[Int].MonoidLaws", GroupLaws[Tree[Int]].semigroup)
checkAll("Tree.FunctorLaws", FunctorTests[Tree].functor[Int, Int, String])
}
```
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Note that with catalysts you can do something similar to how algebra/kernel calls the laws, which is something like:

...
import catalysts.macros.TypeTagM

// this can be added to the general test suite
implicit def groupLaws[A: Eq: Arbitrary]: GroupLaws[A] = GroupLaws[A]

....
laws[GroupLaws, Tree[Int]].check(_.semigroup)

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Do you think this is worth mentioning? I'm not really sure if I can see the benefit 🤔