Do not test Java getters and setters

An excellent project from Osman Shoukry to automate testing of Java getters and setters—that is when you have getters and setters to test. There's the rub: do not write getters or setters.

For starters they violate encapsulation, exposing your objects innards to others. Ok, but there are frameworks which require them, even in 2016. What to do?

Generate them:

@Getter
@Setter
@RequiredArgsConstructor
public final class SampleBean {
    private final String left;
    private String right;
}

With what result?

public final class SampleBean {
    private final String left;
    private String right;

    @java.lang.SuppressWarnings("all")
    @javax.annotation.Generated("lombok")
    public String getLeft() {
        return this.left;
    }

    @java.lang.SuppressWarnings("all")
    @javax.annotation.Generated("lombok")
    public String getRight() {
        return this.right;
    }

    @java.lang.SuppressWarnings("all")
    @javax.annotation.Generated("lombok")
    public void setRight(final String right) {
        this.right = right;
    }

    @java.beans.ConstructorProperties({"left"})
    @java.lang.SuppressWarnings("all")
    @javax.annotation.Generated("lombok")
    public SampleBean(final String left) {
        this.left = left;
    }
}

This code need never be tested. Test the generator, not the generated code. If the generator is correct, so is the generated code. In this case, Lombok is heavily tested.

As an alternative to the constructor taking field values, Jesse Wilson has interesting advice.