How to mock private method for testing using PowerMock?

A generic solution that will work with any testing framework (if your class is non-final) is to manually create your own mock.

1. Change your private method to protected.
2. In your test class extend the class
3. override the previously-private method to return whatever constant you want

This doesn't use any framework so its not as elegant but it will always work: even without PowerMock. Alternatively, you can use Mockito to do steps #2 & #3 for you, if you've done step #1 already.

To mock a private method directly, you'll need to use PowerMock as shown in the other answer.

I don't see a problem here. With the following code using the Mockito API, I managed to do just that :

public class CodeWithPrivateMethod {

    public void meaningfulPublicApi() {
        if (doTheGamble("Whatever", 1 << 3)) {
            throw new RuntimeException("boom");
        }
    }

    private boolean doTheGamble(String whatever, int binary) {
        Random random = new Random(System.nanoTime());
        boolean gamble = random.nextBoolean();
        return gamble;
    }
}

And here's the JUnit test :

import org.junit.Test;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
import org.powermock.api.mockito.PowerMockito;
import org.powermock.core.classloader.annotations.PrepareForTest;
import org.powermock.modules.junit4.PowerMockRunner;
import static org.mockito.Matchers.anyInt;
import static org.mockito.Matchers.anyString;
import static org.powermock.api.mockito.PowerMockito.when;
import static org.powermock.api.support.membermodification.MemberMatcher.method;

@RunWith(PowerMockRunner.class)
@PrepareForTest(CodeWithPrivateMethod.class)
public class CodeWithPrivateMethodTest {

    @Test(expected = RuntimeException.class)
    public void when_gambling_is_true_then_always_explode() throws Exception {
        CodeWithPrivateMethod spy = PowerMockito.spy(new CodeWithPrivateMethod());

        when(spy, method(CodeWithPrivateMethod.class, "doTheGamble", String.class, int.class))
                .withArguments(anyString(), anyInt())
                .thenReturn(true);

        spy.meaningfulPublicApi();
    }
}

For some reason Brice's answer is not working for me. I was able to manipulate it a bit to get it to work. It might just be because I have a newer version of PowerMock. I'm using 1.6.5.

import java.util.Random;

public class CodeWithPrivateMethod {

    public void meaningfulPublicApi() {
        if (doTheGamble("Whatever", 1 << 3)) {
            throw new RuntimeException("boom");
        }
    }

    private boolean doTheGamble(String whatever, int binary) {
        Random random = new Random(System.nanoTime());
        boolean gamble = random.nextBoolean();
        return gamble;
    }
}

The test class looks as follows:

import org.junit.Test;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
import org.powermock.api.mockito.PowerMockito;
import org.powermock.core.classloader.annotations.PrepareForTest;
import org.powermock.modules.junit4.PowerMockRunner;

import static org.mockito.Matchers.anyInt;
import static org.mockito.Matchers.anyString;
import static org.powermock.api.mockito.PowerMockito.doReturn;

@RunWith(PowerMockRunner.class)
@PrepareForTest(CodeWithPrivateMethod.class)
public class CodeWithPrivateMethodTest {
    private CodeWithPrivateMethod classToTest;

    @Test(expected = RuntimeException.class)
    public void when_gambling_is_true_then_always_explode() throws Exception {
        classToTest = PowerMockito.spy(classToTest);

        doReturn(true).when(classToTest, "doTheGamble", anyString(), anyInt());

        classToTest.meaningfulPublicApi();
    }
}