Stubbing is a technique used in software testing to replace a specific function or method with a pre-defined behavior. It is commonly used when the function or method being tested relies on external dependencies that are either difficult to set up or produce non-deterministic results.
By stubbing out these dependencies, testers can simulate the expected behavior and focus on testing the logic within the function or method being tested. This allows for more controlled and predictable testing environments.
Stubbing can be implemented using various tools and frameworks, such as mocking libraries or manually written stub classes. These stubs are usually created with pre-defined return values that mimic the expected behavior of the real dependencies.