playing with being able to mock multiple inputs (I am sure there other/better ways to do this)

test_mock_inputs.py

def makeMultiInput(inputs, idx=0):
    'inputs a collection of strings, to be returned one at a time'

    # closure on inputs and index
    def next_input(message=""):
        # nonlocal only in python3 similar to global but
        # for non local non global variables
        nonlocal idx
        if idx < len(inputs):
            idx = idx + 1
            return inputs[idx - 1]
        else:
            return ""

    return next_input


def test_multi_input_closure():
    multi_input = makeMultiInput(["foo", "bar"])
    assert (multi_input("message") == "foo")
    assert (multi_input() == "bar")
    assert (multi_input("message") == "")


# small function to test mocking multiple input requests
def echo_till_empty():
    data = input("?")
    while data != "":
        print (data)
        data = input("?")


def test_echo_till_empty(monkeypatch, capsys):
    monkeypatch.setitem(__builtins__, 'input',
                        makeMultiInput(["1", "two", "III"]))
    echo_till_empty()
    out, err = capsys.readouterr()
    assert out == "1\ntwo\nIII\n"

Thanks for posting this. It was very helpful. I ended up with this using pytest:

def make_multiple_inputs(inputs):
    """ provides a function to call for every input requested. """
    def next_input(_):
        """ provides the first item in the list. """
        return inputs.popleft()
    return next_input

def test_functional(capfd, monkeypatch):
    """ Does a functional test of the script. """
    monkeypatch.setitem(__builtins__, 'input', make_multiple_inputs(
        deque(["one", "two", "three", "four"])))
    module.main()
    out, _ = capfd.readouterr()