I want a Python unittest.assertAlmostEquals that compares numbers to N significant figures, instead of N decimal places.

[python]
>>> test.assertAlmostEquals(1e-8, 5e-14)
>>>
[/python]

Even though these two numbers differ by a factor of 5 million, when comparing them to seven decimal places (assertAlmostEquals default behaviour) they are equal.

I’ve made a first stab this by overriding assertAlmostEquals on a subclass of TestCase, which retains the behaviour of the original, but provides an extra keyword parameter sigfig.

The code and a unittest for it are below. One of the tests currently fails, due to floating-point inaccuracy problems. I’ll have to look at it some more. Isn’t this problem already solved somewhere?

[python]
import math
import unittest

class TestCase(unittest.TestCase):
    "Augments the assert methods of a unittest.TestCase"

    def __str__(self):
        return "%s.%s" % (self.__class__.__name__, self.__testMethodName)

    def _assertAlmostEquals(self, a, b, sigfig=7):
        if sigfig < 1:
            raise ValueError("assertAlmostEquals: 'sigfig' must be >=1")

        magarg = a or b
        if (magarg == 0) or ((a - b) == 0):
            return

        magnitude = int(math.floor((math.log10(magarg))))
        margin = 10**(magnitude - sigfig + 1) / 2.0
        diff_gt_margin = abs(a - b) - margin > -1e-15
        if diff_gt_margin:
            msg = '%s != %s to %d significant figures' % (a, b, sigfig)
            raise AssertionError(msg)

    def assertAlmostEquals(self, a, b, places=None, sigfig=None):
        if places is not None and sigfig is not None:
            raise ValueError("assertAlmostEquals: "
                "cannot specify both 'places' and 'sigfig'")
        elif places is not None:
            unittest.TestCase.assertAlmostEquals(self, a, b, places)
        elif sigfig is not None:
            self._assertAlmostEquals(a, b, sigfig)
        else:
            unittest.TestCase.assertAlmostEquals(self, a, b)

    def assertRaisesWithMessage(
        self, exceptionType, message, func, *args, **kwargs):

        expected = "Expected %s(%r)," % (exceptionType.__name__, message)
        try:
            func(*args, **kwargs)
        except exceptionType, e:
            if str(e) != message:
                msg = "%s got %s(%r)" % (
                    expected, exceptionType.__name__, str(e))
               raise AssertionError(msg)
         except Exception, e:
             msg = "%s got %s(%r)" % (expected, e.__class__.__name__, str(e))
             raise AssertionError(msg)
         else:
             raise AssertionError("%s no exception was raised" % expected)
[/python]

And a test:

[python]
import unittest

from TestCase import TestCase

class TestableTestCase(TestCase):

    def testNothing(self):
        pass # pun intended

class AssertAlmostEqualsTest(TestCase):

    def setUp(self):
        self.test = TestableTestCase("testNothing")

    def testPreservesUnittestBehaviour(self):
        a = 0.1234567
        eps1 = 0.000000049
        self.test.assertAlmostEquals(a, a + eps1)
        self.test.assertAlmostEquals(a, a - eps1)

        eps2 = 0.000000051
        self.assertRaises(AssertionError,
            self.test.assertAlmostEquals,
            a, a + eps2)
        self.assertRaises(AssertionError,
            self.test.assertAlmostEquals,
            a, a - eps2)

    def testPreservesUnittestBehaviourWithPlaces(self):
        a = 0.1234567
        eps1 = 0.000049
        self.test.assertAlmostEquals(a, a + eps1, places=4)
        self.test.assertAlmostEquals(a, a - eps1, places=4)

        eps2 = 0.000051
        self.assertRaises(AssertionError,
            self.test.assertAlmostEquals,
            a, a + eps2, places=4)
        self.assertRaises(AssertionError,
            self.test.assertAlmostEquals,
            a, a - eps2, places=4)

    def testRaisesIfPlacesAndSigfigSpecified(self):
        self.assertRaisesWithMessage(ValueError,
            "assertAlmostEquals: "
                "cannot specify both 'places' and 'sigfig'",
            self.test.assertAlmostEquals,
            0, 0, places=4, sigfig=4)

    def assertSigFig(self, factor):
        self.assertRaises(AssertionError,
            self.test.assertAlmostEquals,
            1.23 * factor, 1.225 * factor, sigfig=3)
        self.assertAlmostEquals(1.23 * factor, 1.2251 * factor, sigfig=3)
        self.assertAlmostEquals(1.23 * factor, 1.2349 * factor, sigfig=3)
        self.assertRaises(AssertionError,
            self.test.assertAlmostEquals,
            1.23 * factor, 1.235 * factor, sigfig=3)

    def testSigfigNormal(self):
        self.assertSigFig(1)
        self.assertSigFig(1e-6)
        self.assertSigFig(1e+6)
        self.assertSigFig(1e+12)
        self.assertSigFig(1e-12)

    def testSigFigOfTwo(self):
        self.assertRaises(AssertionError,
            self.test.assertAlmostEquals,
            1.2, 1.15, sigfig=2)
        self.assertAlmostEquals(1.2, 1.151, sigfig=2)
        self.assertAlmostEquals(1.2, 1.249, sigfig=2)
        self.assertRaises(AssertionError,
            self.test.assertAlmostEquals,
            1.2, 1.25, sigfig=2)

    def testSigFigOfOne(self):
        self.assertRaises(AssertionError,
            self.test.assertAlmostEquals,
            1, 0.5, sigfig=1)
        self.assertAlmostEquals(1, 0.51, sigfig=1)
        self.assertAlmostEquals(1, 1.49, sigfig=1)
        self.assertRaises(AssertionError,
            self.test.assertAlmostEquals,
            1, 1.5, sigfig=1)

    def testRaisesIfSigFigZeroOrLess(self):
        self.assertRaisesWithMessage(ValueError,
            "assertAlmostEquals: 'sigfig' must be >=1",
            self.test.assertAlmostEquals,
            1, 1, sigfig=0.99)
        self.assertRaisesWithMessage(ValueError,
            "assertAlmostEquals: 'sigfig' must be >=1",
            self.test.assertAlmostEquals,
            1, 1, sigfig=0)
        self.assertRaisesWithMessage(ValueError,
            "assertAlmostEquals: 'sigfig' must be >=1",
            self.test.assertAlmostEquals,
            1, 1, sigfig=-1)

    def testHandlesArgsOfZero(self):
        self.assertAlmostEquals(0, 0)
        self.assertAlmostEquals(0, 0, places=4)
        self.assertAlmostEquals(0, 0, sigfig=4)

    def testHandlesIdenticalArgs(self):
        self.assertAlmostEquals(1.234, 1.234)
        self.assertAlmostEquals(1.234, 1.234, places=4)
        self.assertAlmostEquals(1.234, 1.234, sigfig=4)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    unittest.main()
[/python]