News

Generative AI VS Code Tool Now Does Unit Testing

With generative AI being all the rage these days, Tabnine has updated its AI-powered code completion tool for Visual Studio Code with new functionality: unit testing.

The Tabnine VS Code extension in Microsoft's marketplace has garnered more than 5 million installs on the strength of its AI-assisted autocomplete functionality for JavaScript, Python, TypeScript, PHP, Go, Java, Ruby and more. Such functionality, of course, is also provided by Microsoft's IntelliSense and IntelliCode, not to mention the groundbreaking "AI pair programmer" from Microsoft-owned GitHub, called Copilot, which is powered by an advanced machine language model from Microsoft partner OpenAI.

The Tabnine VS Code Tool
[Click on image for larger view.] The Tabnine VS Code Tool (source: VS Code Marketplace).

And you might have heard of a more recent OpenAI release, called ChatGPT, which has also been used to generate code in software development.

Amid that fast-moving, AI-enriched developerscape, Tabnine last week announced unit testing generation to accelerate the software development lifecycle. It's currently in beta, so the aforementioned VS Code tool doesn't have it yet.

Tabnine Unit Test Generation in Animated Action
[Click on image for larger, animated GIF view.] Tabnine Unit Test Generation in Animated Action (source: Tabnine).

The Tel Aviv-based company said the new unit testing functionality can relieve the time-consuming drudgery of writing unit tests, typically involving tedious and repetitive coding.

"Our new unit test generation capability uses cutting-edge AI technology to generate unit tests for your code automatically, helping ensure that your code is rigorously tested, resulting in fewer bugs and better code stability -- especially important for larger projects or projects with tight deadlines," the company said.

Supported programming languages include Python, Java and JavaScript.

The company's AI tech reportedly improves over time, learning from a developer's previous coding to increasingly generate unit tests that match individual coding styles and patterns.

Note that GitHub Labs has pointed Copilot to unit testing also, with TestPilot, and developers have also used the regular Copilot tool to save time.

Taking note of such competition, Tabnine also last week published a comparison, "Tabnine Enterprise vs. GitHub Copilot Business," which includes pricing details.

Developers can sign up for early access to the beta version of the upgraded Tabnine tool.

About the Author

David Ramel is an editor and writer at Converge 360.

comments powered by Disqus

Featured

  • Mastering Blazor Authentication and Authorization

    At the Visual Studio Live! @ Microsoft HQ developer conference set for August, Rockford Lhotka will explain the ins and outs of authentication across Blazor Server, WebAssembly, and .NET MAUI Hybrid apps, and show how to use identity and claims to customize application behavior through fine-grained authorization.

  • Linear Support Vector Regression from Scratch Using C# with Evolutionary Training

    Dr. James McCaffrey from Microsoft Research presents a complete end-to-end demonstration of the linear support vector regression (linear SVR) technique, where the goal is to predict a single numeric value. A linear SVR model uses an unusual error/loss function and cannot be trained using standard simple techniques, and so evolutionary optimization training is used.

  • Low-Code Report Says AI Will Enhance, Not Replace DIY Dev Tools

    Along with replacing software developers and possibly killing humanity, advanced AI is seen by many as a death knell for the do-it-yourself, low-code/no-code tooling industry, but a new report belies that notion.

  • Vibe Coding with Latest Visual Studio Preview

    Microsoft's latest Visual Studio preview facilitates "vibe coding," where developers mainly use GitHub Copilot AI to do all the programming in accordance with spoken or typed instructions.

  • Steve Sanderson Previews AI App Dev: Small Models, Agents and a Blazor Voice Assistant

    Blazor creator Steve Sanderson presented a keynote at the recent NDC London 2025 conference where he previewed the future of .NET application development with smaller AI models and autonomous agents, along with showcasing a new Blazor voice assistant project demonstrating cutting-edge functionality.

Subscribe on YouTube