Dummy
- An object that is passed around but never used.
- Used to help fill parameter lists or fulfil mandatory field requirements where the object will never get used but gets the code to run.
- In many cases it's just an empty or null object.
Stub
- An object that always returns the same canned response.
- Used when you want to replace a real implementation with an object that will return the same response every time.
Fake
- An actual working implementation (close to but not of production quality or configuration) that can replace the real implementation.
- Can be seen as an enhanced stub that almost does the same work as the production code but takes a few shortcuts in order to fulfil the testing requirements.
- An example is an in-memory database (used instead of a real, persistent database).
Mock
- An object that represents a series of expectations and provides canned responses.
- Can be seen as a programmable stub which can be told the sequence of calls to expect and how it should respond to each one.
- Combines well with Dependency Injection in that it allows pretend objects to be injected that will behave in precisely known ways.
(Source: The Well-Grounded Java Developer, by Benjamin J. Evans and Martijn Verburg)
