--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/tests/test_uniques.py	Sun Dec 10 17:57:03 2017 -0800
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+
+"""
+test CSV file uniques counter
+"""
+
+import csv
+import os
+import shutil
+import tempfile
+import unittest
+from lemuriformes.uniques import uniques
+from StringIO import StringIO
+
+
+class TestUniques(unittest.TestCase):
+
+    header = ['a', 'b', 'c']
+    dataset = [[1,2,3],
+               [1,1,2],
+               [1,2,4]]
+
+    def write_dataset(self, fp):
+
+        writer = csv.writer(fp)
+        writer.writerow(self.header)
+        writer.writerows(self.dataset)
+        fp.flush()
+
+    def validate(self, uniq):
+        """validate `uniq` for object dataset"""
+
+        # count them
+        counts = {key: len(value)
+                  for key, value in uniq.items()}
+        assert counts['a'] == 1
+        assert counts['b'] == 2
+        assert counts['c'] == 3
+
+
+    def test_file(self):
+        """test reading uniques from a file"""
+
+        tmpdir = tempfile.mkdtemp()
+        try:
+            # write test data
+            dst = os.path.join(tmpdir, 'test.csv')
+            with open(dst, 'w') as fp:
+                self.write_dataset(fp)
+
+            # determine uniques
+            self.validate(uniques(dst))
+
+        finally:
+            shutil.rmtree(tmpdir, ignore_errors=True)
+
+    def test_buffer(self):
+        """test using a StringIO buffer object"""
+
+        # write test data to buffer
+        buffer = StringIO()
+        self.write_dataset(buffer)
+        buffer.seek(0)
+
+        # determine uniques
+        self.validate(uniques(buffer))
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    unittest.main()