Eclipse Tip: Keep static imports for JUnit 4

Posted by Vincent Partington in the early evening: October 12, 2008

If you are using Eclipse to write your JUnit 4 tests you might have noticed that when you organize the imports, the line


import static org.junit.Assert.*;

at the top of your JUnit 4 classes is replaced by stuff like:


import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
import static org.junit.Assert.assertNotNull;

While your code still compiles and runs OK, this forces you to add another specific static import every time you want to use another static assert method like assertEquals.

Luckily this can be fixed by going to Windows/Preferences..., going to the Java/Code Style/Organize Imports tab and then entering 1 where it says "Number of static imports needed for .*" and then clicking the OK button.

Hope this helps!

* Filed under: Java

5 Responses to “Eclipse Tip: Keep static imports for JUnit 4”

  1. p3t0r Says:
    October 12th, 2008 at 7:40 pm

    Also, add ‘org.junit.Assert’ or any of your static helper methods to your ‘favorites’ (preferences, search for favorites). This makes working with static imports much easier.

  2. Martin Tilma Says:
    October 13th, 2008 at 9:05 am

    I just wrote on the same issue (http://www.func.nl/community/knowledgebase/eclipse-and-static-imports) but the solution differences a bit.

  3. p3t0r Says:
    October 13th, 2008 at 9:13 pm

    @Martin Tilma … that is exactly what I said in my first comment… but thanks for elaborating ;)

  4. Vincent Partington Says:
    October 14th, 2008 at 9:13 am

    Hey guys, thanks for that tip! I hadn’t seen that option yet, but it seems an even easier solution to the problem. Especially when other people on your project don’t have the setting I mentioned and reformat the code which removes the star again. (You know how you are! ;-) )

  5. Ron Says:
    October 20th, 2008 at 2:10 pm

    Great tip!
    cheers, Ron

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