Pragmatic Unit Testing in Java 8 with JUnit

CORR[E]CT: [E]xistence

You can uncover a good number of potential defects by asking yourself, “Does some given thing exist?” For a given method that accepts an argument or maintains a field, think through what will happen if the value is null, zero, or otherwise empty.

Java libraries tend to choke and throw an exception when faced with nonexistent or uninitialized data. Unfortunately, by the time a null value reaches the point where something chokes on it, it can be hard to understand the original source of the problem. An exception that reports a specific message, such as “profile name not set,” greatly simplifies tracking down the problem.

As programmers, we usually focus first and most on building the happy path. We give only afterthought ...