Unit Testing Boundary Conditions and Edge Cases

Overview

Systematic patterns for testing boundary conditions, corner cases, and limit values in Java using JUnit 5. Covers numeric boundaries, string edge cases, collection states, floating-point precision, date/time limits, and off-by-one scenarios.

When to Use

• Numeric min/max limits, null/empty/whitespace inputs
• Overflow/underflow validation, collection boundaries
• Off-by-one errors, floating-point precision

Instructions

1. Identify boundaries: List numeric limits (MIN_VALUE, MAX_VALUE, zero), string states (null, empty, whitespace), collection sizes (0, 1, many)
2. Apply parameterized tests: Use @ParameterizedTest with @ValueSource or @CsvSource for multiple boundary values
3. Test both sides of boundaries: Cover values just below, at, and just above each boundary
4. Run tests after adding each boundary category to catch issues early
5. Verify floating-point precision: Use isCloseTo(expected, within(tolerance)) with AssertJ
6. Test collection states: Explicitly test empty (0), single (1), and many (>1) element scenarios
7. Handle overflow/underflow: Use Math.addExact() and Math.subtractExact() to detect arithmetic overflow
8. Test date/time edges: Verify leap years, month boundaries, timezone transitions
9. Iterate based on failures: When a boundary test fails, analyze the error to discover additional untested boundaries; add test cases for the newly discovered edge conditions

Examples

Requires: junit-jupiter, junit-jupiter-params, assertj-core.

Integer Boundary Testing

import org.junit.jupiter.params.ParameterizedTest;
import org.junit.jupiter.params.provider.ValueSource;
import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.*;

class IntegerBoundaryTest {

  @ParameterizedTest
  @ValueSource(ints = {Integer.MIN_VALUE, Integer.MIN_VALUE + 1, 0, Integer.MAX_VALUE - 1, Integer.MAX_VALUE})
  void shouldHandleIntegerBoundaries(int value) {
    assertThat(value).isNotNull();
  }

  @Test
  void shouldDetectIntegerOverflow() {
    assertThatThrownBy(() -> Math.addExact(Integer.MAX_VALUE, 1))
      .isInstanceOf(ArithmeticException.class);
  }

  @Test
  void shouldDetectIntegerUnderflow() {
    assertThatThrownBy(() -> Math.subtractExact(Integer.MIN_VALUE, 1))
      .isInstanceOf(ArithmeticException.class);
  }

  @Test
  void shouldHandleZeroEdge() {
    int result = MathUtils.divide(0, 5);
    assertThat(result).isZero();

    assertThatThrownBy(() -> MathUtils.divide(5, 0))
      .isInstanceOf(ArithmeticException.class);
  }
}

String Boundary Testing

import org.junit.jupiter.params.ParameterizedTest;
import org.junit.jupiter.params.provider.ValueSource;

class StringBoundaryTest {

  @ParameterizedTest
  @ValueSource(strings = {"", " ", "  ", "\t", "\n"})
  void shouldRejectEmptyAndWhitespace(String input) {
    boolean result = StringUtils.isNotBlank(input);
    assertThat(result).isFalse();
  }

  @Test
  void shouldHandleNullString() {
    String result = StringUtils.trim(null);
    assertThat(result).isNull();
  }

  @Test
  void shouldHandleSingleCharacter() {
    assertThat(StringUtils.capitalize("a")).isEqualTo("A");
    assertThat(StringUtils.trim("x")).isEqualTo("x");
  }

  @Test
  void shouldHandleVeryLongString() {
    String longString = "x".repeat(1000000);

    assertThat(longString.length()).isEqualTo(1000000);
    assertThat(StringUtils.isNotBlank(longString)).isTrue();
  }
}

Collection Boundary Testing

class CollectionBoundaryTest {

  @Test
  void shouldHandleEmptyList() {
    List<String> empty = List.of();

    assertThat(empty).isEmpty();
    assertThat(CollectionUtils.first(empty)).isNull();
    assertThat(CollectionUtils.count(empty)).isZero();
  }

  @Test
  void shouldHandleSingleElementList() {
    List<String> single = List.of("only");

    assertThat(single).hasSize(1);
    assertThat(CollectionUtils.first(single
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