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    I've never found that argument for testing private methods compelling. You refactor code into methods all the time for reasons that have nothing to do with the public API of a class, and it's a very nice thing to be able to test those methods independently, without involving any other code. That is the reason you refactored, right? To get a piece of independent functionality. That functionality should be testable independently as well. Commented Dec 12, 2013 at 16:47
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    @RobertHarvey answer expanded with a rant addressing this. "Private methods are beneficial to unit testing..." Commented Dec 13, 2013 at 7:54
  • I see what you're saying about private methods and code coverage, but I wasn't really advocating making those methods public so that you can test them. I was advocating having a way to test them independently even though they are private. You can still have your public tests that touch the private method, if you want to. And I can have my private tests. Commented Dec 13, 2013 at 16:06
  • @RobertHarvey I see. Guess it boils down to coding style. At the amount of private methods I typically produce, and at the rate I refactor these, having tests for them is simply a luxury I can't afford. Non-private API is another matter, I tend to be quite reluctant and slow at modifying it Commented Dec 13, 2013 at 16:14
  • Perhaps you're better at writing methods that work the first time than I am. For me, I need to test the method to make sure that it works first before I can move on, and having to test it indirectly by firing off a series of other methods would be clumsy and awkward. Commented Dec 13, 2013 at 16:16