test "handled exceptions" junit - exception

Question

I have a method with a handled exception:
public boolean exampleMethod(){
try{
Integer temp=null;
temp.equals(null);
return
}catch(Exception e){
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
I want to test it
public void test_exampleMethod(){}
I have tried
#Rule
public ExpectedException expectedException=ExpectedException.none();
public void test_exampleMethod(){
expectedException.expect(JsonParseException.class);
exampleMethod();
}
but that doesnt work because the exception is handled inside.
I also tried
#Test(expected=JsonParseException.class)
but same issue...the exception is handled
I know that I can just do
assertTrue(if(exampleMethod()))
but it will still print the stack trace to the log. I would prefer clean logs...Any suggestions?

Answer 1

You cannot test what a method is doing internally. This is completely hidden (unless there are side effects, that are visible outside).
The test can check that for a specific input the method returns a expected output. But you can not check, how this is done. So you have no way to detect if there was a exception that you have handled.
So: either don't handle the exception (let the test catch the exception), or return a special value that tells you about the exception.
Anyway, I hope your real exception handling is more sensible than in your example.

Answer 2

If the method does not throw an exception you cannot expect to get one!
Below an example how write a Junit Test for a method that throws an Exception:
class Parser {
public void parseValue(String number) {
return Integer.parseInt(number);
}
}
Normal test case
public void testParseValueOK() {
Parser parser = new Parser();
assertTrue(23, parser.parseValue("23"));
}
Test case for exception
public void testParseValueException() {
Parser parser = new Parser();
try {
int value = parser.parseValue("notANumber");
fail("Expected a NumberFormatException");
} catch (NumberFormatException ex) {
// as expected got exception
}
}