Explain the "setUp" and "tearDown" Python methods used in test cases

You can use these to factor out code common to all tests in the test suite.

If you have a lot of repeated code in your tests, you can make them shorter by moving this code to setUp/tearDown.

You might use this for creating test data (e.g. setting up fakes/mocks), or stubbing out functions with fakes.

If you're doing integration testing, you can use check environmental pre-conditions in setUp, and skip the test if something isn't set up properly.

For example:

class TurretTest(unittest.TestCase):

    def setUp(self):
        self.turret_factory = TurretFactory()
        self.turret = self.turret_factory.CreateTurret()

    def test_turret_is_on_by_default(self):
        self.assertEquals(True, self.turret.is_on())

    def test_turret_turns_can_be_turned_off(self):
        self.turret.turn_off()
        self.assertEquals(False, self.turret.is_on())