What is a sanity test/check

testing smoke-testing
Andy Hin picture Andy Hin · Oct 29, 2010 · Viewed 86.9k times · Source

What is it and why is it used/useful?

Answer

Sion Sheevok picture Sion Sheevok · Nov 1, 2010

A sanity test isn't limited in any way to the context of programming or software engineering. A sanity test is just a casual term to mean that you're testing/confirming/validating something that should follow very clear and simple logic. It's asking someone else to confirm that you are not insane and that what seems to make sense to you also makes sense to them... or did you down way too many energy drinks in the last 4 hours to maintain sanity?

If you're bashing your head on the wall completely at a loss as to why something very simple isn't working... you would ask someone to do a quick sanity test for you. Have them make sure you didn't overlook that semicolon at the end of your for loop the last 15 times you looked it over. Extremely simple example, really shouldn't happen, but sometimes you're too close to something to step back and see the whole. A different perspective sometimes helps to make sure you're not completely insane.

Related questions

What is the difference between smoke testing and sanity testing?

What is the difference between smoke testing and sanity testing? When do will perform smoke testing and when do will perform sanity testing?

Read More
How to solve the error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol - function?

I get this error, but I don't know how to fix it. I'm using Visual Studio 2013. I made the solution name MyProjectTest This is the structure of my test solution: -function.h #ifndef MY_FUNCTION_H #define MY_FUNCTION_H …

Read More
How to check if a string array contains one string in JavaScript?

I have a string array and one string. I'd like to test this string against the array values and apply a condition the result - if the array contains the string do "A", else do "B". How can I do …

Read More