Unit testing is an essential practice in software development that helps ensure the quality of code. It involves writing test cases for individual units of code, such as functions, methods, or classes, to verify their correct behavior. Unit tests are typically written by developers during the development process.
The main goal of unit testing is to catch bugs and errors early in the development cycle. By isolating and testing individual units, developers can identify and fix issues before they propagate to other parts of the application. This reduces the likelihood of introducing bugs and improves the overall stability of the software.
Unit testing also promotes modular and reusable code. Units that pass the tests can be confidently used in other parts of the application, knowing that they behave as expected. This increases code maintainability, as changes made to existing units can be quickly validated through automated tests.